With the school year ending, testing season, for most teenagers, begins. The Florida Mandated End of Course (EOC) and Advanced Placement exams (AP) start this week, and Key West High School (KWHS) finals week is steadily approaching. During this final stretch, teens can get extremely worn out and stressed from studying, testing, assignments, and any extracurricular activities that are still going on. 

Most classes are pushing out review packets, final projects, and even some last-minute assignments. This stressful crunch-time schoolwork can make high school students feel fatigued, and overall exhausted. Some push through, however, and even spend extra time working on their extracurriculars. 

Liz Piaz, a sophomore this year, is one of these students. She is the head of the light department for the Drama Clubs’ production of Mean Girls. Piaz expressed that these tests are very rigorous and would leave her drained. “I would put all my energy towards the testing and by the time I’m doing my other classes I have no energy at all.”This leaves not only Piaz and many other students, exhausted, but on top of that they have to deal with extra homework from their other classes. Four of Ms. Piaz’s classes give her extra homework. She expressed that if her other classes were perhaps a bit more understanding during testing season and gave students less homework, it would help her out. 

Teagan Lavin, a junior taking one AP, one Dual Enrollment (DE),  and two Honors classes, has also expressed that testing season is exhausting. “I go home and just don’t do anything else,” said Lavin. They even mentioned not having the mentality or motivation to do much after testing days. Half of their classes still give reviews or homework during this time as well, meaning already after an exhausting day, there is more to do. When asked if no homework would be helpful, they responded by saying the review is helpful and important, but that less of it would be beneficial. They also mentioned that the less there is to do before or after testing, the more they can focus on the test itself and this can result in less fatigue and stress. 

Sophomore Kevin Nguyen also takes honors classes and is enrolled in one AP class. He said that testing doesn’t necessarily make him stressed or exhausted. Though in comparison to his classmates, Nguyen seems to be getting a bit less homework, as only two of his classes give him homework. He did agree with his classmates on one point, however, stating, “Having less homework would be nice.”

Testing season can be a stressful and exhausting time, especially when students are still getting homework and participating in after-school activities. Sometimes, it would help for teachers to leave the review for class time, unless of course a student misses out on class and needs to make up the review. High levels of stress and exhaustion may not apply to all students, but most get mentally drained from days of studying for multiple tests and then taking at least one test, if not more, on the same day.