Junior year. The very mention of it strikes fear into the hearts of high schoolers everywhere; but why? It’s just another school year. Right?
As someone who has fully experienced the joy that is grade 11, I can attest to the statement that junior year is in fact the most challenging year. After skating through freshman and sophomore years, even if you took honors classes, junior year is at a whole new level.
There are many reasons as to why the jump from sophomore to junior year is difficult for many people. First of all, junior year is when most people begin to take Advanced Placement and College Now classes.
In these types of classes, the homework load increases substantially, as well as the overall difficulty of the classes you are taking. If you are involved in multiple things either in school or out of school, this makes it much harder to do this homework which is why most juniors walk the hallways incredibly sleep deprived.
In addition to harder classes, junior year is when you start to really look at colleges and decide what you want your major to be. And what comes hand and hand with college? The ACT.
When our parents were in school, for the most part, they showed up to the testing center with two No. 2 pencils, took it once and got into college no matter what score they got. The process is much different now. Most students spend months studying and taking prep classes and will end up taking the test multiple times before they are satisfied with their score.
Even though during your junior year you begin to think that five hours of sleep is good enough, and that everything in your life revolves around school and standardized tests, the pain that you go through helps make senior year much more enjoyable. This is because you are more prepared and know how to deal with the workload and the harder classes. Once you get the ACT out of the way, there is a huge burden lifted off of you and you can finally relax and enjoy the rest of your high school career.
So all of you juniors, hang in there, senior year is not as bad as junior year. And all of you freshmen and sophomores, good luck!