By Kira Yates ‘16

Generally, junior year is portrayed as the most stressful year of one’s high school career, especially for students who are taking at least two AP classes—which is nearly half of Sherwood’s Junior Class. To uncover the validity of this generalization, 65 juniors in AP Language and Composition classes were surveyed on how they felt about the workload in eleventh grade.

Two-thirds of those surveyed feel overwhelmed, although the level of stress varied. Many students mentioned that participating in school activities, including sports, holding jobs, maintaining a social life, studying for the SAT and ACT and worrying about college contribute to their stress. “I feel overwhelmed because I am never able to go to sleep at a reasonable time because I’m balancing activities and homework,” explained junior Tony Niverth.

A few students, however, find a way to do it all and without stress. “I’m not overwhelmed because I study, do my homework on time, and never procrastinate. So I’m never stressed,” said junior Doron Tadmor.

78 percent of students feel that junior year is more stressful than past years pointing to factors like an increased amount of AP classes and the upcoming SATs and ACTs. When asked if this year was more stressful and why, one junior responded on the survey, “Yes, I am taking three APs. Need I say more?” Other responses included “As the clock runs out, I’m attempting to raise my GPA,” and “There is way too much information and way too little time.”

Because the majority of juniors are feeling overwhelmed, it’s no surprise that 62 percent of the students surveyed feel that their large homework load is affecting the amount of sleep they’re getting.

While one hour of homework for an AP class sounds fairly reasonable, multiply that by three, four, even five AP classes, and the student’s whole night is spent doing homework. On average, students in two or more APs have three to four hours of homework each night and the overwhelming majority feel that it is way too much, especially after spending seven hours in school.

Interestingly, 63 percent of the juniors surveyed feel that the quality of their work suffers because of the large amount of work they are assigned.

One suggestion that students had for reducing the stress of AP classes was teachers from different subjects coordinating different tests days. “I think we don’t coordinate with each other because we don’t even associate with each other. It is easy for me to walk over to Ms. Games’ room and ask what she’s doing but the other teachers are farther away, and I don’t even know who some of them are,” explained AP World teacher Beth Shevitz.

Some more practical ideas for making students feel better about AP classes included doing less busy work, taking more concise notes, and teachers checking for understanding.