By Sabrina Merold ’13, Staff Writer

For most Newark Academy students, one of the most stressful times of the year takes place from the return of Thanksgiving Break until Winter Break. Right after Thanksgiving, you can expect to see countdowns begin on Facebook for the number of days until Winter Break. As a junior, I have begun to realize that the stress level remains the same every year for exams, but as the course loads of other classes continues to increase as I get older, exams seem to be an even bigger burden.

During freshman year, exams are slightly daunting because even though they may not be the first exams you have ever taken, they are your first in high school and the idea that they count for up to 20% of your term grade can be a bit intimidating. Progressing on to sophomore year, exams are less daunting because you have the experience of already taking them, but you now have an increased workload of generally AP classes. Moving on to junior year, things change entirely because even though the stress of exams remains as usual, you have to handle an increasingly rigorous amount of material in all of your classes. Particularly for International Baccalaureate Candidates, who for the most part are taking almost all AP or IB classes, which require external exams at the end of the year, exams seem to be added work to an already packed workload. While I completely understand that exams are necessary to reinforce the material learned throughout the first term, at times, with continuous assessments in most classes and external assessments in AP and IB classes, it seems like they are an extraneous burden.