With only a month left in the first semester, finals are quickly approaching. The question is, how are finals affecting the minds and effort of students?

Susie Adams, U.S. history teacher, stated  what she has noticed in her classes throughout the first semester. “I always see a decrease in student effort between mid-October and the end of November. But then effort from students begins to spike after Thanksgiving break because of a panic right before final exams,” Adams said. 

On the other hand, Hannah Nandor, chemistry teacher, said she notices the opposite. “The effort is always bouncing back and forth as effort at the beginning of a unit is poor, but once we start closing in on the unit test, the effort starts to bubble up again.”

Adams explained that students should start preparing as soon as possible for finals. She says it would help curve anxiety before the test. “Students should start preparing early and finish missing assignments to get grades up so that they’ll be more ready when finals start,” Adams explained.  “Students will get overwhelmed and frustrated when they try to get everything done at the last minute which should be avoided.”

Nandor, however, poised a second point of view, explaining that students shouldn’t start studying early. “I think that students should always keep studying on their radar, but it’s a bit early. Instead, students should just focus on the task at hand so that they’re not overloaded with information from the whole semester.”

Devan Kelley, junior, says he is finishing tasks as they have it, rather than preparing ahead of time. “ I honestly feel fine about finals right now and am focusing on keeping a steady pace with school work for my classes,” Kelley said, mirroring Nandor’s message. 

Battle High Schools offers many opportunities to start preparing for upcoming tests. Teachers also give before-school and after-school opportunities to get help.  Students can also take advantage of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) study sessions after school on Tuesday and Thursday in room G207.