The Post-Testing Limbo
It is the end of May. You are sitting in a half-empty classroom, and the class is about to make an important vote – “The Princess Bride” or “Despicable Me”? This is a common experience for some juniors and most seniors during AP/IB testing season and some time after – education abruptly ceases, VCR machines are dusted off, and school seems more like purgatory than anything.
To help curb this problem, many schools have moved the end of school to May instead of June. This model should be implemented at NPHS in order to make the most of class time. This way, students have more time to learn content for AP testing and less time is spent twiddling thumbs and waiting for summer.
While we are forced to be at school, teachers aren’t forced to teach. During May, school becomes a prolonged study session for AP testing. This is fine when teachers allow us to bring laptops and work during class while a G-rated film plays in the background, but I’ve had several teachers insist that their pointless videos are actually beneficial to our learning, so we take video notes on topics unrelated to the subject area.
“Why go to school if it’s a waste of time?” is a question many students ask themselves, which presents a bit of an awkward situation. It is possible to be more productive at home than in a classroom, working from a chair that doesn’t hurt your back, and taking naps as desired. Yet, the school receives money from our attendance. So why not make it easier on everyone, and remove the days that no one wants to be at school in late May and June, and replace them with days in August? Non-AP/IB students still get the same amount of school time, and AP/IB students do not have to suffer at the end of the year. The school will get more money and students will be happier and more productive.
No motivation remains during this rather intense brain killing season. During the infrequent occasions when there are assignments, time is still wasted as students are too unmotivated to work productively. When nothing is going on in class, the only concerns on your mind are of having scored well on your AP/IB tests and summer. In situations like these, staying at home and quickly getting schoolwork done would be faster and more efficient, allowing the student to have more time to study for tests or finals. The limbo that occurs between the end of AP/IB tests and the last day of school is just a set up for students to skip school. This problem could be avoided if school ended earlier, preventing this limbo.
School can be a waste of time after AP/IB tests. Every waking minute of class is empty space with students sitting on the edge, waiting for finals to finally be done with and summer to arrive. If school simply ended when these tests are over, attendance would not be jeopardized and the system would be more efficient. Starting and ending school earlier is a win-win situation, and should certainly be employed at NPHS.