STRESS, I don't think I have ever felt as stressed as I do right now. With 7 tests this week and a french final, I have had no time. My schedule and suffering hasn't been as bad as some of my classmates. If the teachers only two lost days, which doesn't seem like a major setback, why it has proved to stretch time to the absolute end? Also, why bother testing us on something and then have a final within 3 or 4 days!? We only have one weekend to prep for finals because we were so swamped with homework and projects from last weekend.
At what point do adults lose the feeling of what is was like to be a kid? It is June 2nd and summer, along with enjoying myself is the last thing on my mind. What is the purpose of shoving one more chapter of useless facts down our throats, to spit onto the final exam? Most of our teachers have children, would they want to put their children under this same pressure? They preach about understanding the pressure and telling us its not about the grade but the learning experience. Do they realize our entire lives our based on GPA? Thats just the world we live in.
I think that there has been a complete breakdown in communication between the educational system and students. Google educational studies, it is proven increased workloads do not increase your intelligence, yet thats exactly the method being used. Now for the millionaire dollar question, why doesn't anyone get it?
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28 comments:
I really have to agree. I know that it is the week before finals, and this week is supposed to be challenging and test us on our "studying" skills. But I think there is a point where it is too much.
OH MY GOSH TAYLOR.
you are my new favorite person...ever.
you said what we're all thinking. i've never understood the point of piling it all on at the end, seriously overstressing us.
not only is that bad, but us being this stressed is not good for us, especially because we're growing and blah blah blah.
rant over. i love you.
Agreed, agreed, agreed....!
Does anyone ever realize that teachers and stuff give us more hw the older we get...do we have more time to do it?? uhhh, NO. We all do sports and extra stuff after school, whether it be family or clubs..but there isn't more time for hw.
I need final studying time. All these tests and homework and such don't help.
Merci beaucoup taylor!
I'm going to have to agree. This becomes a tricky situation because obviously no teacher wants to give up their cumulative test, etc, because each class is equally entitled to their personal class time and shouldn't be required to shift stuff around because of other classes, however it becomes a huge deal for the students who can't fully prepare for all of these tests. For example, I have 5 tests coming up in the next two days, Thursday and Friday. Five. Not to mention the fact that I'm still being given math and bio homework, etc. Some of these tests will require a lot of studying/preparing on my part, but even if I balance it out over these next nights I still have activities and a ton of other homework. I think that teachers haven't necessarily forgotten childhood, but it's possible they underestimate the stress and pressure we can handle (and the amount of stress they could). Basically, I'm right behind you Taylor, and I get your point completely. It's gonna be one sleepless week for me.
I agree. So much.
I really can't take it anymore. I have a bunch of tests coming up in every subject we have, and we have four school days left before finals. FOUR! And then finals. I feel like every day another surprise assignment appears. Why should school get hard right at the end, when if we'd picked the pace up slightly in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, everything would have ended on time?
I definitely like this blog post. It's so true. And we're only freshmen...
that's what i really don't understand, and someone please enlighten me if you do. why is it that we ALWAYS end up crammed for time at the end? like...doesn't that mean there's too much material or not enough time or something?
teachers usually expect that the year will go slower than it does, and i suspect it's kind of a knee-jerk reaction like oh crap! we have to get this last chapter in. additionally, i think that sometimes teacher's don't want to go easy on us because there's the whole 'that's how highschool is' stigma. We can't just review stuff the last week of school, we have to be pushed up til the very end. It's a huge pain.
It seems like the last week has the most in it though! They put all the information they can on us in the least amount of time. I know my brain has trouble taking that in...
Ok so I totally agree with all of you. Within just the rest of this week, I believe I have 5 tests, 2 of which are finals! Not to mention a huge project which pretty much makes up my whole fourth quarter chem grade. At some point, it is just impossible to put the required amount of effort into everything in order to get the grade you want. No matter how hard I try, I really don't think it is possible for me to do well on all of my tests this week because there are just not enough hours in the day and my brain is not big enough to remember everything I study. Our choir teacher mentioned the other day that the real evaluation of what you have learned throughout the semester is what you know before you cram for the exam. It seems completely pointless to me to throw in tests at the very end of the year because we will all just be cramming to get a good grade and we will really get nothing out of it.
Also, does anyone else find it somewhat ridiculous that most of our finals are before finals week? What is the point of finals week then? I don't know about everyone else, but for me, by next week I am done with almost half of my finals. In some ways it is nice, but it is also bad because having finals this week makes it even harder to study for tests in other classes.
At least it's all over in a week. No matter how much these last few days suck, it won't matter in a week.
So I guess we just have to deal with it for now, unfortunately. But they can't be expecting us to be doing our best work the last week before finals, and they probably will be. Oh well.
I totally agree with everything Taylor said. Yeah I'm so mad about all these random assignments and tests we find out about few days in advance. I have FOUR finals this week in addition to finals next week. On top of that, I have FOUR more MAJOR tests, and half of them are on the same day.
Seriously, what is with the mentality that we should be piled up on the last week? We've been piled up all year, and now its even getting worse. And like Sam, I don't retain information when circumstances turn into what they are now.
And now I'm not going to get ANY time to study or anything because I have so much homework and random assignments to do. And I'll probably end up not sleeping at all either, so yeah, I'm going to end my rant here and get on the mile high pile of work with my name on it.
definitely agree. it has taken me an HOUR AND A HALF of working on this english final so far, and i'm not even done with two full analyses. and that was about an hour and 20 minutes of serious, concentrated work. what's with this R/J essay THREE DAYS BEFORE WE HAVE IT?? personally, i think we should ask to be allowed to choose which essay to write, just because then instead of writing out and trying to memorize FOUR PROPOSALS, we would only have to really prepare for one
You know, I've always said that it's not the stress that kills us; it's the way we handle the stress. But, I do agree that at some point, there is SO much stress, that it becomes unmanageable, unbearable, and just simply uncontrollable. Personally, my homework load isn't that bad right now. But, I distinctly remember the end of last semester when I had loads and loads of homework and things to study for and I truly felt like I was going to explode. Sometimes I wonder if I should be doing so much stuff outside of school. It's like, "should I not do the team next year?" because like Taylor said, grades DO matter and being involved in sports teams and clubs takes a lot of time commitment. Yes, time management is key, but what if there's not enough time to manage it ALL?
Ok this is basically the summary of ALL that I have been feeling for quite a long time. Taylor, either you read my mind or we think exactly alike. I think it's downright pathetic and rude to stuff all this "learning" in our faces... in June! What do people have against teenagers that are just trying to have fun? Childhood is supposed to be carefree and the best time of a person's life, and I know we're all nearing the end of it, but STILL! Fun might be even more important at our age, before we enter the "real world"!
I definetley agree with Chelsea and pat that we have to just deal with it now, but at the same time I don't see the point, and the pressure can't be healthy. Today I had to chose between dinner with my grandparents and doing homework, that's just ridiculous. I thought academy was supposed to be about deeper thinking not busy work.
unfortunately, the reality is, its very unlikely anything will change. I mean, maybe the romeo/juliet essay could be dropped? (hint hint). but all i can say is that just like us, teachers also procrastinate. sorry to be the devils advocate here. and although i COMPLETELY agree with everything that has been already said, we're probably just gonna have to deal with it.
i'm completely overwhelmed too. i find myself wasting time looking for songs when i have so much other work to do. agh! why do we have to do so much right at the very end?
I've had similar feelings, thought it was just me. It does seem like we are doing things just for the sake of doing them. I think we should choose quality over quantity here, its easier and more effective for both the teachers and the students
Believe it or not I also have several chapter tests this week. This week, for example, I have two tests...in the same subject! THERE IS NO POINT.
I think it's not necessarily the teacher's fault but maybe the school board's or whoever is forcing the ridiculous curriculum on everyone.
And Anna, that's probably some sort of coping mechanism. You turn away from your stress because it becomes unmanageable.
My friend's math class started on the day where they go in and meet the teacher, and in retrospect I personally find that far more reasonable than this absolute madness.
(Taylor hit it on the nail- "I thought academy was supposed to be about deeper thinking not busy work." I think there's too many parts to our English final, but that's another story.)
Basically, I feel like most teachers (tenure may or may not be a factor) don't actually care if we learn the material adequately or not, as long as the cover the curriculum.
I guess teachers just expect us to deal with it, and we might have to get used to some of this for Junior year and the harder times in high school.
While it's definitely not fun, and probably not fair, most teachers aren't really going to care.
For the English final, I think maybe the artwork part could be removed. I don't know if I want to spend this week and weekend finding paintings when I'm trying to study for finals.
I don't really see what it has to do with english, anyways. Just my take.
i totally agree, Pat. That part does seem a little bit of an afterthought. I think words and sound are enough to get the point across. the pictures are so subjective anyway that it won't make a difference which one you choose. you can argue artistic license for anything! this one was not completely thought out...
Just a thought: I know we are all very stressed about all the upcoming tests. I know I am really frustrated myself. Since we seemed to have come to a conclusion that the teachers probably won't be changing anything at this point, rather than talking about how stressed we are about all the tests, we should study! At this point, there is really nothing we can do to lighten our homework load, not to be pessimistic, so we might as well just do the best we can. But then I guess I'm being a hypocrite for still commenting on this... :] so I'm gonna go study for my many tests.
I have to say this and I know that you all are going to hate me for it, but STOP COMPLAINING AND JUST DEAL WITH IT!!! There will come a point when people won’t change things just for you. You may as well learn to start dealing with it now. We are no longer in eighth grade. We’re in high school, so stop freaking out when things become just slightly hard to manage. So maybe you have to stay up really late a few nights, so what? I know I will. Come to accept it and move on. This year is almost over so just get through the next few days and then take a deep breath.
Bill ur right, and I'm sure are venting that's what most people did, I just kinda posted this so that people had an outlet for their frustration.
Yeah, Bill, that's what I thought we were doing...just venting. It's not like we would have changed anything by complaining, but we were discussing stress and the impacts of it.
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