ClAss of 2018's Declassified Survival Guide
By: Emma Bonca, Nikki Schlegel, Maya Biekert, and Maddie Barrett
The class of 2018 has seen it all: the turmoil of coming of age, the beginning and the end of the staple high school experience, and all of the highs and lows in between. They’ve made it (almost) through four years of high school, and so can you! The Silver Creek seniors share their advice on everything they have learned in their experience at SCHS.
SAT
All students are required to take the SAT the spring of their junior year. As seniors, the class of 2018 can reflect on their standardized testing experience. Students varied whether they took a prep class or not, but the majority wished they put some sort of practice into knowing the test format and managing test anxiety. Practice questions and practice tests were the most common ways that current seniors studied for the SAT.
Taylor Sandal, a member of the class of 2018, says that her advice to underclassmen is to, “take the test more than once so you can improve your score.”
Senior Brandi Vu would recommend that students, “think fast while taking the test, but don’t stress too much. Even though the test is important, it isn’t everything that colleges look at.”
Dealing with finals
Almost every course at Silver Creek requires a final... dun dun dun. I remember all the rumors starting freshman year relating to how stressful finals can be. Little did I know, finals week is the most stressful week that I experienced in high school. Depending what course you are taking some teachers choose to do a cumulative final, or a final focused on the last chapter or unit. If the teacher is feeling nice, the final is a project, which has always been my favorite. Dealing with these projects and tests, my coping mechanisms were crying and sleeping. Cry, study, sleep, repeat. Three tips I lived by that helped me tremendously were:
1. Do the practice final or any practice questions the teachers give you because there is a 90% chance they’re on the test.
2. Crying releases so much stress.
3. From the wise words of a dad- “try your best, that's all I ask”.
Many seniors would agree with me, including Coryn Crotzer. While interviewing Coryn, I asked her a serious of questions relating how she felt about finals and she immediately said ,“most stressful week of my life, but always got through it.” She is what you would consider gifted in the math and science field, but claimed she dreaded taking her AP Calc test and was really nervous for it but in the end didn't drastically affect her grade. At the end of her interview she said “stressing isn't worth it, it's one test.” Finals is a very stressful part of the high school experience, but don't beat yourself up too much, like Coryn said, it's only one test grade.