Now that my junior year of high school is almost over, I have to say that most of what I’ve heard about why junior year is difficult has been a lie.
Even though 11th grade is difficult in terms of course rigor, it’s not because APUSH textbook readings take hours or because AP Physics and AP Chemistry make your brain hurt. In fact, most of the content is interesting enough to make studying somewhat tolerable. The main culprit trying to sabotage my grades is the fact that in many weeks, five different teachers manage to place their tests within a span of two or three days, if not all on the same day.
Take Oct. 22 and 23, 2024: the 22nd was a physics test and a chemistry test, the 23rd was an APUSH unit test and an English quiz. The case was even worse for some of my peers who took AP Calculus BC and had a test that week as well. My junior year has been littered with weeks just like this one that sometimes even include a Spanish quiz just to top it off.
These tests are perfectly manageable on their own, but when clumped up on the same day, they make for an unmanageable amount of content to study. I would gladly switch to a schedule where some lectures move faster if it means the tests were at least a little more spread out.
