By Dagney Palmer and Lili Samios
TUSCARORA HIGH SCHOOL – Exams are coming up sooner than you would think. Soon students will be studying and cramming for their mid-term exams. What are most students doing to prepare? You might be surprised.
Exams are a time of stress for all high school students. The more prepared you are, however, the less stressful they will be. Exams tend to sneak up on you, especially the mid-terms. The best thing to do is to manage your time and don’t let exams steal your sleep.
What are most students’ study habits as of now? Well, a majority of students have no study habits. When asked if he had started studying yet, 10th grader Logan Feierbach said, “No, I think about exams the day of.” Most students share his attitude towards exams.
When asked when she will start studying, O’haila Khan said, “Probably last minute.” Logan also said, “Never, I never study.” This technique of not studying for an exam works for some students, but not for most. 11th grader Byron Smith said that he would start studying “soon, probably over winter break.” Not all students procrastinate with their studying.
Exams and tests are different in every class. When asked if he thought exams were going to be harder this year compared to last year, Logan said “no.”
On the contrary, Ohaila Khan said, “Yes, because my math class is much harder this year.”
Byron answered, “Yes, considering I’m a junior, I have harder classes.”
Ninth grade students may be more worried about midterm exams than older students, because it’s their first year experiencing a high school level exam. But there’s no need to fret, because high school exams aren’t all that different from middle school exams. Except that they’re longer, harder, and they count for one fifth of your semester grade. So basically, if you’re a ninth grader and you’re getting nervous about the midterm exams, the first step is to realize that you’ve taken tests like the exams before, so you’ll know what to expect.
The next thing to do would be to set up a study plan. Find a study method that works for you, and stick to it. Go over the information that you do know for each class, and learn or get help with the things you don’t know. Set aside time regularly to study and you will do just fine.
Midterm exams count towards one fifth of your entire first semester grade. It’s important to take them seriously, but just as important not to worry about them too much; this will just make you more stressed out and it will be harder to focus on preparing for the exams. Exam week tends to sneak up on students, so it is best to set up a schedule to help you study as much as you need to be successful.