2022 took off with an extra week of winter break, which may have been initially celebrated by students. It was definitely merited after the long year of hard work, and hopefully students had a chance to spend quality time with loved ones and enjoy the snow. But, as soon as school started, it turned into an overwhelming reality as we entered the last stretch of our first semester.
Out of the students that we interviewed, the majority reported that the first semester was full of heavy workloads and stressful schedules. Sophia, a grade 12 AP student, noted that “the semester was pretty stressful given that COVID was still happening and I had university applications on top of my schoolwork.” Seniors of the school likely share the same testament with the rather rushed pace of the curriculum in addition to planning for countless university applications. Similarly, Matthew, another student in grade 12, shares that “it’s a lot more stress from AP courses because many of the teachers are rushing to finish the course and are piling up tests.” As we near the end of the semester, the final assessments have left many students feeling a decline in their mental health and swamped with work.
On the contrary, Sidney, a grade 11 student, found that the semester system is less stressful in comparison to the linear system or last year’s quarter system. She believes that it is, in fact, a perfect balance of the previous schedules we have had as there is a more manageable number of classes at once. However, as Sidney attempts to plan for her senior year at Sentinel, she hopes to transition back to a linear system to better suit her AP classes’ coursework.
With course planning fast approaching for all students from grade 8 to 11, here is some additional advice that may be taken into consideration when planning for the next school year, or even in the next semester. As schedules get increasingly more hectic as time goes on, it would be highly beneficial to take advantage of calendars, planners, and learning aids. Lily in grade 10 has learned the importance of these study tools, and claims that they help keep her on top of her work! An example of a learning aid would be the Pomodoro method (which Sophia has found very helpful), consisting of breaking work blocks into manageable intervals of 20-50 minutes of studying followed by a 5-10 minute break. Finally, moving forward with this year, try not to overload and overwhelm yourself with too much work at the last minute–make sure to plan ahead and remember to schedule in well deserved breaks!
Cover photo by Jihoon You
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