First Quarter Blues

As the first quarter of the 2019-2020 school year comes to a close. Students, lower and upperclassmen, reflect on how the school year has been so far.

Getting back into the swing of the school routine can be really hard, especially in the first quarter. After summer vacation, I (and I’m sure many students also) forget how to do school lol. What I mean by that is students forget how to manage time: studying for tests, attempting to do homework, whilst also having time for sleeping and de-stressing. Junior Milena Albertson said, “The beginning of the school year is always so hard getting back into the swing of the daily school routine.”

Adjusting to new classes with new curriculum and new teachers assigning all new projects, essays, and assignments takes some time getting used to. Don’t even get me started on having 5 tests on the same day. Every time you have a big test in one class, you are destined to have another big test in another class on the same day. It’s not even coincidental anymore, it’s like it’s planned (teachers?). I’m just kidding. 

But in all seriousness, 1st quarter is one of the hardest, if not THE hardest quarter of the school year. Every student expects some not so good grades in the 1st quarter, whether they like it or not. Most students don’t appreciate the bad grades, I know I definitely don’t appreciate them, but they happen to everyone. 

Another annoying thing about 1st quarter is how fast it goes. I mean I feel like it was just September and we were just starting school again. But it's actually November which is crazy. With the 1st quarter ending, it means midterms are just around the corner (ugh nasty). And then it will be AP week, then Regents/Finals week, and then all of a sudden school is over. I know that seems like really far away, but judging on how fast this 1st quarter went I have a feeling it’s going to be a really fast year. Freshman Annie Forestiero says, “The first quarter of my first year in high school went insanely fast.”

If your school year hasn’t been going well so far, and you want to change it heading into the 2nd quarter, here’s a little bit of advice. I suggest taking a look back on what happened this quarter. Understood.org says, “as you look back, think about ways to build on the successes.” While doing this, you should also think about what went wrong and why, and how you could change it going forward.

I also suggest resting and sleeping more. “Teenagers need around 9 hours of sleep,” says Nationwide Children’s Hospital. I have a good feeling that the chances of us getting 9 hours of school night is slim to none. We all have too much going on like sports, clubs, work, homework, and studying to get that much sleep. Sleep is a necessity though. Heading into the 2nd quarter, try and sleep more, it helps a lot. 

Recently, each student has received their first quarter report cards. Many, including myself, were shocked with how high my weighted average was. For AP students I think we all forgot our courses were weighted really heavily. Junior Sophia DiPrima said, “I can’t believe my weighted average is 8 points higher than my unweighted.” 

However, for some students their weighted averages were incorrect. They calculated them themselves and recognized that they were too low for the classes that they were taking. Some believe this was because of the new AP classes like Psychology and Statistics not getting weighted like other AP courses. Whatever the case was let’s hope their averages are corrected.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great second quarter and good luck on midterms at the end of the quarter!