By Hasan Mirasyedi, Staff Writer
As the second quarter of the school year comes to an end it means that midterms are right around the corner. Midterms are heavily weighted tests given to students during the middle of the school year usually marking 10% of a class’s overall grade. For most high school students, this year’s midterms won’t be their first. However, for freshmen it’ll be the first time they take these challenging tests.
According to Freshman Sydney Annmarie “taking midterms as a freshman makes it more stressful.” Sydney explains how her lack of studying strategies might add to the stress making it harder as “everything is a new experience.” Freshman Ester Balakirsky agreed with Sydney expressing how “Midterms are very scary.” Ester also added how “being a freshman makes it a little harder as all this is new to me.”
For returning high school students, there seems to be mixed opinions. Junior Richard Cheng stated that he is “worried for midterms because they are a bit of a challenge.” Richard is most worried about his “calculus midterm as it is a hard class.” On the other hand, Junior Robinson Ohm isn’t too worried about midterms this year. When asked about midterms he said they were “light” and he wasn’t stressing about them. Robinson said, “out of all my classes I am least worried about anatomy and most worried about physics, but even then I’m not too scared.”
For some seniors midterms can be a pretty big deal. Some colleges require mid year reports which include the grades from the first two quarters and midterms. This adds to the pressure for a lot of seniors as many need a good grade to get into specific colleges. Senior Jake Miller articulated that “the fact that our midterm grades get seen by colleges does add to the pressure a little bit.” Senior Rohan Gambir agreed with Jake stating “there is a lot more pressure because of colleges and I’m hoping I do well.”
However, not all seniors feel the pressure. When asked about midterms, senior Bethel Bruk said she’s “ feeling a 5/10 because [she] only has 5 classes and they’re not that bad.” Bethel said she’s “least looking forward to [her] stats and English finals, but even those won’t be too bad.”
For freshmen taking their first ever midterm, a big week lies ahead of them. As for returning River Hill students, some don’t seem to feel the pressure the heavy week of testing brings with it. Although annoying, midterms are a great measure for teachers to see how well students are progressing through the year. The best thing to do as of now is continue studying and try to do as well as possible, afterall, it is 10% of the overall grade.