RACE TO GRADUATION

by Izabelle Munn design by Annagail Fields

Graduating is a big event in one’s life. It is a symbol of growth, achievement and starting a new chapter in your life. It shows academic accomplishments and how four years of hard work pays off, but for Rebekkah Wills, it is only three and a half. Wills is a senior at Columbus North High School who is graduating in December of 2021, and attending Purdue University starting in January of 2022.

“I really wanted to get a head start on college and another is that a lot of my classes that I would be taking next semester were going to be a lot of, just like, ‘fluff’ because I’ve already done most of the things I need to do,” Wills said.

Wills is a senior this year and decided that she wanted to graduate early over summer break and wanted to gain the benefits of graduating early, while getting a head start on the college experience. This experience will be starting in January when Wills will head to West Lafayette to start her freshman year as a Boilermaker with her sister, despite the rush to finish all of her work a semester early. “It is a little bit stressful. I have to make sure that my senior project is done, which I’m presenting tomorrow. And then, and it’s a little bit weird to do it against the norms, and if I have any questions I have to email my counselor,” Wills said.

Wills agrees that it is hard to graduate and keep up with some of the more stressful elements, it is overall a good experience for her, and that she can benefit by going to college earlier than some other students. “Most of them are very excited, and some of my friends are sad that I’m going to be leaving them, but they’re also excited that I’m continuing with my life,” Wills said.

While Wills’ family and friends are happy, and proud of her for her accomplishments, it also means that she will be leaving for college sooner than expected. Wills’ friend senior, Shreeya Ettireddy is very excited for her friend, but is disappointed to see her leave so soon.

I really think I’m going to miss her at those times,” Ettireddy said.

Because Wills is graduating in December, and leaving for college in January, she will be missing a lot of events during second semester at North. Ettireddy says these are some of the times that Wills’ will be missed the most. “I’m really going to miss her a lot, especially since she’s going to be missing graduation and prom, so I really think I’m going to miss her at those times.”

by

Natalie Brown

design by

Alex Osburn

Testing anxiety affects students every day. And for many, this will be their first time taking tests of this caliber. The stress and tension that come with the preparation are intense and hard to get a grip on. For Freshman Emily Wart, finals pose a unique challenge, despite taking high school classes in middle school. “All my classes are doing finals. The ones I am studying for…. It’s a lot of stuff to study for. Even the ones that aren’t doing an official final are doing projects that are weighted as finals,” she says.

The method Wart uses for studying is the most common technique- going over materials already presented.

“Normally I don’t prepare too much for tests, but when I do, I use my own notes and presentations on itslearning,” she says.

Itslearning and Powerschool are amazing resources to view grades, assignments, and tests. But don’t let it overwhelm you.

“Do your best, and the ones you

Sophomore Emily Wart studies for her finals. Finals week ended last week. The schedule was adapted this year due to it being the first full year of in person learning on block scheduling. photo by Grace Wheatley have down, don’t feel like you need to study really hard for them because that can be intimidating… spend the time wisely, spend it on things that you don’t understand and you need to get done,” she says.

Kate Russel has a lot more confidence coming into finals. Some of her AP classes include AP Computer Science, AP Literature, AP Physics, and AP Calculus. Despite this, she’s going into the tests strong.

“I’m not really a nervous test taker and I spend an adequate amount of time studying so in the past I haven’t had a lot of stress regarding finals. Due to the lack of excessive stress I usually have done fairly well,” she says.

To articulate how she thinks test taking stress impacts others, she goes to the negative impacts stress can have on your body- and your grades.

“I personally don’t have a lot of test taking anxiety, however I understand that it can very negatively affect the outcome of a test. Not only does it cause someone to over exceed the recommended levels of stress for peak performance, but it can affect what is retained from studying and can also cause a lack of sleep which is also going to negatively affect how the test itself goes,” she says.

To study, Russel has many strategies. “In my opinion the best way to prepare for a final is to find out what’s going to be on it first. Most teachers will provide a review or syllabus for the test and if they don’t you can quite literally ask them “what do I need to know for the test” and usually they’ll give you an answer. Once you have that information you have to think about what you need to prioritize when reviewing and focus on some of your weakest points. It’s also a good idea to look over homework from the semester and rework some problems.”

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