There’s nothing like staying up all night and watching the sun rise after studying for AP Lang, Physics and Spanish tests. And junior Shaye Wilson says she’s has experienced this too many times.
Because of having multiple tests on the same day, she gets little or no sleep due to a fear of failure. By staying up until 1 a.m. students are not retaining the information they have been studying and because of that, other class can be covertly used as AP study time.
Since West Shore opened in 1998, the school has designated testing days to prevent students from having an overload of major assessments. But the policy is not working out as the administration had hoped.
“Having each department test on only one day is too restrictive,” Prinicpal Rick Fleming said. “We could try and get the departments to talk to each other, but it’s hard enough to have teachers talk in their own department.”
The administration is stressing to parents that students aren’t getting enough sleep, but going to bed is the last thing on our minds if we are having to stay up and study for multiple tests.
“I think it’s dumb,” junior Shaye Wilson said. “By the third test I’m burned out, and I can’t focus.”
Few schools in the district have assigned testing days, and we know that our administration is trying to look out for our best interest — but the current policy is only making things more stressful.
“I find that the freedom to test on any day allows me to focus on where my students are and adjust accordingly instead of sticking to a schedule,” said Viera High School teacher Heidi Heath, who last year taught at West Shore.
Ours is a school of excellence, but we can’t achieve excellence if students are spending their class time studying for the two additional tests they’ll have later in the day. Administrators say they haven’t heard of any conflicts with multiple tests on the same day, but they don’t know the truth. If more students bring this problem to the eyes of the teachers and administrators, maybe something can be done to address the problem.