As the third quarter comes to an end, Valley students are exhausted, stressed and pent up with anticipation. With only one quarter left in the school year, students experience an increase in pressure. Final grades are becoming more important, deadlines are getting closer and previous motivation to complete school work is slowly fading away.
Burnout has become a common theme with students. After many months of balancing assignments, tests, extracurriculars and activities outside of school, many students feel drained. What was once manageable now feels overwhelming and it shows in performance.
“I just feel like everyone is burned out,” junior Annette Wilson said. “At the beginning of the year it was fine. But now it’s hard to even do one more assignment. And it’s not that I don’t care, it’s just exhausting now.”
Sophomore Charlotte Trump said the third quarter was one of the hardest.
“Everything is being assigned all at once,” Trump said. “And I can’t keep my grades up, they keep dropping. And it’s making me very stressed.”
Junior Diya Nawaz said that her breaks don’t feel like breaks because of the work the teachers have been assigned to do over break.
“It feels like this has been going on nonstop,” junior Diya Nawaz said. I just kind of feel like everyone is waiting for school to finish.”
Despite all the stress and work, students anticipate the end of the school year. Many students are looking forward to summer break. The idea of resting and spending time with family and friends without having to worry about school has been a source of motivation for some students.
Quarter four is a final opportunity for a lot of students to bring up their final grades. For some students, it’s about just trying to get through. Teachers continue to emphasize the importance of bringing grades up one last time in order to raise final grades. And many students are embracing that mindset.
As the school year begins to wind down, students continue to push themselves to make it through one last quarter, as a chance to improve their grades.
“I’m really trying to lock in for just one last quarter,” sophomore Edem Kuadey said. “Even if this quarter wasn’t that good. I need to bring my grades up during quarter four.”
