It is difficult to pinpoint a part of the year where SIS students struggle the most. Sometimes, it is the AP season for the upperclassmen when they spend days sitting in the test center. Other times, so-called “hell weeks,” when difficult tests are placed back-to-back in a single week, cause many sleepless nights. But the period before the Thanksgiving break had high school students experience burnout: a state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion.
Because SBEs (Skill-Based Exams) happen during the last two weeks before winter break, many teachers tend to hold summative assessments before the Thanksgiving break. This way, students are not handling SBEs and other summative assessments simultaneously, while being able to rest during the holidays. However, this in turn leaves students to go through a burnout.
One reason for this is that the crammed assessments are often unit tests. Since Thanksgiving break marks the beginning of finals, most courses are designed to finish the unit.
“I had six summatives (assessments and assignments) in a span of three days before Thanksgiving,” Lucy Park (11), said. “It was very tiring, especially with an AP Seminar assignment because I had to write a two thousand-word essay. I slept past three a.m. every day.”
When weeks are flooded with exams, students often stay up late, attending school physically exhausted. This causes students to be lost in a vicious cycle: when sleep-deprived, health declines and leads to burnout.
This burnout season was even harder for student-athletes who had to juggle between games and practices every week. With basketball, cheerleading, and swimming having games scheduled on Wednesdays, Fridays, and even the weekends, many student-athletes could not perform their best in both tests and games.
“My grades definitely went down during the week,” Chloe Kim (9), cheerleader, said. “Doing cheer and experiencing a stressful week was hard. It was challenging to get used to this because I am a freshman. Although it is my responsibility to successfully balance my workload, I was struggling.”
