Students are stressed with upcoming finals. Photo illustration courtesy of junior Vyolet Burrus.

  Next week’s Finals are approaching rapidly at San Luis Obispo High School, and students are racing to prepare for their exams. For freshmen it’ll be their first time taking finals at the high school level, and the end of the trimester signals the first grades that colleges will see. For seniors, it’s an even bigger pressure, the final grades that could determine their future. 

  “Since I’m a freshman, I’m quite nervous about finals because I have no idea what it’s going to be like,” said freshman, Mila Shih.

  Regardless of your grade, finals cause quite a stressor on students, and it can greatly affect a student’s mental health. Final exams are usually cumulative, meaning that students are tested on all the topics that they’ve learned throughout the trimester. 

  “I think that finals put a lot of pressure on any student in any class. It’s really hard to remember an entire trimester’s worth of material [for] a 2-hour exam,” said senior and all AP student, Mary Zawalick. 

  Five periods means that students have five finals to prepare for, most being cumulative. Even though some classes might not have traditional finals, it can still be hard to prepare for the end of the trimester. As the final approaches, students get overloaded with bigger assignments and end of term projects. Managing five classes becomes worse and worse as finals nears, and for AP students, the workload is even heavier. 

  “There was a week where I got super stressed out about doing well, and it actually made me worse. There’s really no point [in getting stressed out]. If you love yourself and are happy, everything will work out regardless of what petty grades you get in high school,” said senior and all AP student, May Ritter. 

  Students are able to manage their mental health if they study frequently and manage their assignments without procrastinating. Those who put off assignments and wait until the last minute to study for finals, become even more stressed. 

  “I think the most effective way to prepare for finals is just doing the homework and classwork that is assigned, and if you get stuck on a problem for more than a few minutes, jot the question down for later review, and continue finishing the assignment,” said Shih.

 In order to have good mental health, students need to develop good study habits so finals don’t completely overwhelm them. Many teachers give study guides and offer extra help for students who would like to review before the final. With the new schedule this year, Monday tutorials offer even more time to prepare for finals. 

  There are resources available for students at SLOHS, it’s only a matter of finding what works best for oneself. 

  “[Finals have] always gone better than I thought they would and it has reassured me that they’re not a big deal in the grand scheme of things,” said Ritter. 

Don’t stress SLOHS students, finals will be over before you know it. 

Source: breezejmu.org