Freshmen this year are experiencing extra stress caused by exams due to their lack of experience. Freshman Logan Tiggleman remembers all of the exams that he took in middle school, and he realizes that they didn’t really prepare him for exams in high school. This was in part due to the limited number of exams that he took and the fact that several teachers didn’t count them as a big part of his grade.

“[In] seventh grade, the first exam was just a practice [to] get you into the swing of things,” Logan recalls. “In eighth grade, we didn’t have any exams, and now, all of a sudden, I have exams in all of my classes, and it’s kind of overwhelming.”

Although Logan doesn’t think that middle school exams prepared him for high school exams, he does feel that his teachers now are preparing him and that he will perform well on them this year.

“I feel like this year, [the teachers] have given us extra preparation,” Logan said, “because they know we haven’t had exams, and we don’t know about them.”

The freshman class has been buzzing about how unprepared they feel for exams and how nervous and stressed they are over them. Exam time is stressful for everyone, but it is especially stressful for freshmen who have very little experience and have an exam in practically every class.

Getting nervous is just a part of taking exams, but learning to cope with nerves can be very tricky. Logan knows that he gets nervous for exams, but he also realizes that even if he’s nervous, he still has to take the exam and try his best.

“I try to breathe and remind myself that the more scared I am, [it] isn’t going to change the future,” Logan said. “It’s just being scared.”

Being apprehensive can affect how someone performs on a test or exam, but it is important to also realize that being nervous is always going to happen, and you have to learn how to handle it.

While Logan gets nervous for exams and deals with it well, senior Lily Klaasen doesn’t usually get nervous. She feels as though she has always been prepared, and although some exams are harder, and therefore more concerning, she does very well at keeping her cool during exams.

“I usually don’t get nervous,” Lily said. “But when I do, I either study or try to get my mind off the exam.”

Lily’s tactics for when she does get nervous are very effective because studying helps her know the content better, and trying to get her mind off of the exam or focusing on something else helps bring her nerves down.

Although Lily claims that she doesn’t get too nervous about the final assessments, there are certain subjects that do raise some concern in her. Some exams can be more difficult depending on the subject, teacher, or even the preparedness of the student.

“I’m pretty concerned about my math [exam] because it will determine my final grade,” Lily said, “and my AP Macro one because that will also determine my final grade in the class.”

Math teacher Tracy Will feels that her students are trying their hardest to prepare for exams and will execute them well. Students have been working very hard this semester, and she feels it will show through their exam grades.

“My students have been working very hard this semester,” Will said. “I think my students will do great on their semester exams. One struggle I think students had at the beginning of the year was trusting that their teachers were going to be here for them. I could tell that a few students in my classes had really been working through their studies on their own during the past year, and they had a hard time believing that their math teacher was a person they could trust to teach them and then to answer their questions the next class session. Lately, I have found that my students are letting down their stressed-out, defensive walls, and they are definitely trusting me more. So, I think we are in a great place and ready to take semester exams.”

Will knows that her students will try their hardest on their exams and will be well prepared. She is going to extra measures to make sure all her students are prepared.

The several classes that she teaches are all being prepared in different ways, but she is making sure that they are all ready and is doing all she can for them.

“In math, I will give my students focused review opportunities so that they can efficiently use their time to study the most important concepts from the semester,” Will said. “Students will have three solid days during class to work on exam reviews, and I hope they arrive each day with questions from problems they worked through the day before so that our time during class is almost enough for most students to feel confident on the exam.”

Will is doing her best to prepare all her students and make them feel comfortable and ready for her exams. Every course she teaches will have a different method of studying depending on the class and the format of the exam.

“The AP Statistics exam review will be different than the Algebra 2 and the Alg/Geo exam review,” Will said. “That is because the AP Statistics test at the end of the year is set up differently than a typical test in math, and I want to help the AP Statistics students prepare for that final test.”

Considering that last year was a bit wonky due to the COVD-19 pandemic, a lot of students struggled to grasp what they were learning. Although this year has returned mostly to a state of normalcy, it can still be tough for students to learn as they have in previous years.

Will believes that students will be able to succeed on their exams despite the pandemic. She knows that if they try hard and put in the effort, they will do their best on their exams.

“I can imagine that some students might try to act like they ‘don’t know how to study’ for exams,” Will said, “and [they] might claim that having a pandemic rollercoaster last year led to them not being able to prepare for exams this year, but no. I think every person gets to approach each new day with a clean, fresh start and that many students have really shown up this year, and any student who has a drive to prepare for exams this year will find success.”