An aura of anxiety and stress fills the school. The students of Corry Area School Middle-High School have gone into panic mode due to the amount of work the end of the school semester brings them. As the first half of the year comes to an end, with it comes the panic and stress of midterms and standardized testing. Students are using all parts of their brains to sort things out and figure out all of their subjects they have to test in, compacting all types of knowledge into their head at once.

Students have similar thoughts about the approach of midterms. Ninth-grade student Aubrey Vanderhoof said, “I’m very stressed out from the thought of taking the tests, and all the studying.” Sydney Woods agreed and said, “I don’t believe that the midterms are worth doing because they are very stressful for everyone.”

As the first semester comes to an end, teachers are throwing in as many tests and lessons as possible. Not only do students have to worry about getting last minute assignments and tests turned in and done, they also have the worries of midterms and other standardized tests approaching. Students are now studying non-stop trying to retain as much information as they can. This causes them loss of sleep and an enormous amount of stress laid upon them.

When asked how they feel towards midterms, freshman Payton McCray said, “Midterms make me hate school, and not wanna come.”

Students aren’t the only ones who are going through this catastrophe. Teachers have been planning and preparing all their students for this and are the ones creating the tests and curricular activities. Teachers are stressed over getting all their grades in and still preparing lessons for their students. The end of the first semester is very stressful for everyone at Corry Area High School. Midterms are the main focus for students right now because even though they are only 8% of your grade, those midterm questions are usually what some of the Keystones questions are going to look like, so the midterms are not only taking up 8% of your grade they are also preparing and refreshing your mind for the big test towards spring. Midterm testing is the mainstream of testing when the first semester ends, and that’s also why students tend to work harder on studying for that then doing most of their regular assignments. The end of the semester kind of feels like an end of an era. We are now halfway through the year; it’s like a new world.