It’s that time of year again. Final time. You can feel the anxiety and stress as you walk through the halls. Students are reciting the vertex formula or random facts about William Shakespeare all around campus. As the countdown gets lower the anxiety level gets higher.

A few students were asked about finals and their answers basically some up this time of year stress.

“Finals have been overwhelming and stressful because of the pressure they put on me. Either from my personal goals or my parents pressuring me to do well,” says sophomore Bam Han.

Contributing to all the stress are students’ own academic goals to be successful in ODA’s rigorous college preparatory environment.

“I honestly can’t deal with all this pressure. It’s crazy. I have never been this stressed. I have to take two exams on Wednesday. How in the world am I supposed to manage that?” states sophomore, Chris Robinson.

Many students have to deal with the pressure of taking many exams in only a day’s time due to over lapping classes. This scheduling raises most stress levels to chart-breaking levels.

“This is my  first high school exam, and I don’t really know how to handle it. I see all the upper class men freaking out, so I guess I should be taking this more seriously,” explains freshmen, Lucas McCloud.

Many freshmen are going through this adapting to exam structures. Although freshmen year tends to not count in one’s high school record as heavily as other grades, exams are just important and do affect overall grades.

But keep it in perspective: In two weeks, all this stress will be forgotten and summer plans will be the only thing causing anxiety.

Take a breath and realize exams will soon be passing in your rear-view mirror.