By Elena Wu-Yan and Diane Karloff
With the beginning of the new year come both excitement and anxiety for what the future holds. Such feelings will only intensify for Princeton High School students in the next weeks as midterm exams approach.
But how can these exams, which constitute just one day in a yearlong or half-year course, justify such extreme emotions? Midterms each last for a mere two hours, over four days in the last week of January, but represent 10 and in some cases, 20 percent of a course’s final grade.
Students throughout PHS are worried about the outcome of the upcoming tests. Of the four grades, though, which has the greatest reason to fret?
One would think that freshmen, who have never before taken midterms like those encountered in high school, would be most nervous.
Said Christian Chiang ‘16, “I’m expecting that the magnitude of the exams, both in terms of being weighted as a grade and in terms of length, will greatly differ from my past experiences.”
He is certainly not alone. The entire freshman class lacks a familiarity with midterms that upperclassmen have accrued over the years. Chiang plans to study in the weeks leading up to midterms, the first of which is on Jan. 28, but anticipates resorting to cramming the night before a test if he feels less than confident.
Most sophomores and juniors, having gone through this ordeal once or twice before, have by now determined which study techniques are most efficacious.
”I’m definitely going to do group studying because that helps me a lot; and also definitely the weekend before midterms, I will use that whole weekend for studying,” said Allison Hubert ‘14.
Katherine Gerberich ‘15 spoke of her freshman year, “I didn’t know what was coming, and I had no idea how I should be studying.”
However, after learning from her experiences last year, Gerberich plans to prepare very differently this time around.
”I’m not cramming. I’m breaking [studying] up a lot better than I did last year because there is so much to know. I’m going to try to do at least 15 minutes a day for chemistry, and probably the same for math. I’m going to be studying in shorter, but in-depth periods of time,” she said.
However, despite having become acquainted with the whole process, students of the two intermediate grades still feel tense. At this point in high school, schedules are often loaded with difficult classes, potentially including several APs, which present a challenging set of midterms.
Hubert describes herself as being equally nervous as she was freshman year, remarking that her midterms are now more difficult. Additionally, she considers these midterms to be the most significant of high school, as they will help her to prepare for the four AP exams she will be taking in May.
Meanwhile, the prospect of college looms ahead. We all know that colleges have high expectations; so, how hard can we possibly push ourselves now, in hope of gaining admittance to our favorite university in the next year or two?
Gerberich emphasized the importance of doing well on midterms, saying, “It does have an effect. Taking into account your transcript [for college]… is stressful. But I’m not aiming for the highest caliber Ivy League, so it’s not like I must, must, must [do perfectly]. “ And still, certain seniors are perhaps experiencing the greatest pressure of the students at PHS. For those who have yet to be accepted into a top college of their choice, midterm scores will likely play a role in admission decisions. Midterms, for some seniors, will serve as a last measure to boost their mid-year grades that colleges will see.
Joe Rorem ‘13 explained, “If you’re [aiming] to do well, you’re coming here to work, even though it’s not a whole lot of fun. You can either whine about it, or you can just do it. In my case, I’m not terribly excited to do that, and I’m kind of jealous of some of my friends [who have gotten into college] to some extent, but mostly it’s just doing what I have to do to do well.”
While the rest of us toil to review a semester’s worth of material in the impending weeks, seniors who have been admitted into a preferred college can, for the most part, afford to remain calm.
Said Lauren Ullmann ‘13, “I am definitely more relaxed, but I still have to send in a mid-year report and my final grades, and … it’s the same for a lot of kids I know who’ve already gotten into schools. But, I’m just telling myself that I can relax.”
Ullmann has a number of midterms to study for this year, but feels that the pressure to perform extremely well is off her shoulders.
”Junior year, I felt like I needed to do better on [my midterms] because my grades were counting then and there. That’s what was going to be seen on my transcript by colleges, whereas now it’s just showing that I’m maintaining the level of schoolwork. The stress I felt at midterms junior year was more of the constant stressjust the whole feeling of junior yearwhereas this year is just a week of tests that I’ll have to take.”
But aside from these seniors, who comprise only a fraction of the student body, PHS students are anxious to perform to their highest capabilities. There is much to review but little time to prepare. So go back to your textbooks, classmates, and good luck!
Elena Wu-Yan is a sophomore and Diane Karloff is a junior At Princeton High School.
