Students are used to a hectic end of the year with final projects, test, and exams, but this year reached a whole new level of chaos with the increased amount of testing and disruptive schedule changes.

“I had to worry not only about my schoolwork but when and where I was going, which was even more stressful,” said freshman Makira Walton. Testing days necessitated dramatic changes to the daily bell schedule that lasted almost an entire week.  Some classes were nearly four hours long on certain days. With SLOs, Milestones, AP finals, and regular exams all within the last five weeks of school, students couldn’t get a break from testing, and teachers had a chaotic time moving Chromebooks from classroom to classroom and proctoring tests.

In the last five weeks, there was a single day without any tests scheduled. The testing also cut into the time reserved for reviewing within classes for final exams.  “Unfortunately, the flow of our study of literature was greatly changed, which caused some frustration for all of us,” English teacher Juliana Wright said. “Students who were absent fell far behind quickly, and some of those students missed even more class time due to making-up testing.”

Having tests back to back for weeks can be a catalyst for dismay, and “by the end, you are mentally exhausted,” said senior Daniel Adams, who took three AP exams. “There is no way that you can do as well at the end as you did in the beginning. When the tests are over three hours each, it drains your brain.”

Many students said  they felt discouraged too when they found out that their Milestones and SLO scores would not count this year.  “It is terribly challenging to motivate students to take a test seriously when it is not going to be averaged into their grades,” Wright said.