Junior Tiffany Huang woke up one day last month, her face flat on the AP U.S. History textbook that she had been reading prior to falling asleep. Half-awake, Huang drowsily turned her head and gasped when she saw the clock: 4:30 a.m.
Yawning, Huang placed the textbook onto her desk and stretched. With a look of pure exhaustion, she reached for yet another thick textbook — “Top 10 Ways to Ace the SAT.” Looking wearily at her empty bed, Huang hoped she could get through the difficult and breakless month of October.
October is been known for its endless cycle of standardized tests and lack of breaks. The constant bombardment has proven difficult for Huang and the rest of the current junior class, as they are the culprits of sleepless nights and seemingly endless study sessions.
In fact, some students like junior Aayush Aggrawal find themselves going to significant extents to keep up with the immense homework and study load.
“After studying for the SAT all night, I realized that my WiFi had gone out and I still needed to submit my APUSH homework. So at 1 a.m. I hopped the fence and ran to my neighbor’s house to submit the assignment. Luckily, it wasn’t late,” said Agrawal.
However, Huang and other students find that with time management and effective course-load balancing, students can endure what seems like an unsurvivable month. Huang avoids media platforms to stay focused and on-task.
“If I can avoid looking at Facebook or YouTube from the start, I avoid it for the entire night,” Huang said. “But if not, then I’ll get absorbed in them and distracted from my work.”
Huang has also developed small methods to cope with the seemingly overwhelming workload, such as drinking water to keep herself alert and awake, especially during early morning periods.
“Those little tricks are especially helpful during an overwhelming month like this,” Huang said. “Sometimes, though, I’m so tired that nothing helps. One time, I fell asleep on the floor and my brother walked into my room and asked what I was doing.”
Other juniors like Connor Reyes allocate time to spend with friends and family, finding that such activities help alleviate stress.
His advice? — “Don’t just focus fully on grades because you’ll just drag yourself to the ground,” Reyes said. “Make sure you’re able to have those days when you can escape from the stress of school.”
Junior Jaijit Singh also finds that spending time with friends and family is an effective strategy, recalling a time when his dad took him to a restaurant during an immensely stressful week in order to help relax him.
Although little stimuli and break-time do help, junior Ryan Ahrari also chooses to plan study sessions and focus on one test at a time.
“Knowing that I have many things to study for, I usually like to allot time to SAT prep on the weekends and focus on school related tests at all other times,” Ahrari said. “I’m bad at dealing with stress, so at times I make sure to plan everything out and not procrastinate.”
Although the month of October seems like too much to handle at times, juniors agree that it is manageable with the right mindset.
“Even though sometimes I panic because everything about this month is so overwhelming, I trust that at the end of the day, my preparation will have a positive effect on the outcomes of my tests,” Ahrari said.
