With the school year becoming more daily and comfortable, the academic pressure being placed on students has increased heavily. Throughout the year, students taking advanced courses especially have felt the repercussions of constantly studying for unit tests and quizzes. The pressure has definitely been ramping up, but at what point does it break students?
Students have seven classes filling up their schedule, and with specific classes having a much heavier workload than others, this can lead to huge levels of stress and panic among students especially if the majority of classes a student takes are chaotic and challenging, such as AP classes. It doesn’t make it any better when elective or language classes also pile on challenging work when these are deemed as “easier” classes for students. Imagine this, you have an AP Biology unit test coming up on the same day you have a Spanish quiz and copious amounts of Spanish homework alongside the quiz. This places even more pressure on students as studying for an AP Biology test has to be prioritized but, a student still would like to feel prepared for their Spanish quiz coming up.
With this in mind, teachers should also be understanding of the other responsibilities students hold in regard to their additional classes. For all classes, having unnecessary homework every day and quizzes every week in electives generate even more stress for students. With the importance of mental health, educators should keep a balance between the amount of work they assign, and be mindful of the fact students hold challenging responsibilities to other classes.
Junior year especially is when students feel the most academic stress, with AP exams, preparing for college applications, and most importantly standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT. With all of this in mind, there should be more done for students to have an outlet for relaxation, as it can get overwhelming. Starting with wellness days being more constant and not as many tests being assigned in various classes.
“All the work from all the different classes pile up and make a huge stress ball on me,” junior Mateo Playuk said.
It is detrimental for students to be constantly experiencing academic-related stress, which can ironically lead to the demise of motivation for studying and wanting to do well in school. Constantly being assigned work, being nervous about the next test you have to study for, and maybe even having to take five quizzes a week can lead to students being burnt out. A burnout can obviously do more harm than good, and grades may drop in return.
There needs to be a balance between the amount of work and assignments given in class. Not too much work to the point where students feel suffocated and constantly stressed, but also not too little work where learning isn’t being done. A balanced amount must be held in order to accommodate students’ mental health, and help relieve the academic pressure placed on scholars every day.
