Junior Amanda Reid quickly gathers her belongings from the lower gym after her nearly 5 hour long AP English exam. She only has five minutes till her Math final exam is supposed to begin. Stress and anxiety build up in her as she remembers all the make-up work she will have to do for the classes she is missing today.

Reid is not the only junior struggling to balance AP exams, senior exams, and regular school work.

Many juniors find themselves taking classes with seniors because they take higher level classes like Physics. Because of this, instead of taking their exams the same time as the rest of the juniors and under classmen, those students’ exams occur when the seniors get out at the end of the senior’s year.

This year senior exams were May 8, 9, and 10. These exams took place during regular school time for juniors and underclassmen, so non-seniors taking the exams had to miss class time.

This year, senior exams also happened on the first week of AP testing which went from May 6 to May 10. However, AP exams also continued into the next week from May 13 to May 17. The same students that participate in senior exams also often participate in AP testing, which requires them to miss even more class time.

While these tests continue to take students out of the class room, classes usually go on as normal. Students are held responsible for studying for their exams and making up missed classwork and homework.

Students taking higher level classes and trying to get college credit are being hurt by the unnecessary scheduling. It is unfair to pile on students the normal level of school work while they are trying to study for senior and AP exams and are missing large amounts of class time.

Teachers need to be more aware of the burdens being placed on students during this two week period of craziness. While in a perfect world, students should be exempt from assignments and teachers should try to structure class so students do not fall behind. In reality, school is still in session and teachers need to keep moving.

Therefore as a compromise, teachers should be more lenient on homework and allow students to have longer amounts of time complete assignments.

For juniors taking senior classes, the administration should work with teachers to ensure that juniors have at least the option of taking their exams later at the normal scheduled time for juniors at the end of the year. However, if this is not possible, senior exams should not be scheduled during the weeks of AP testing.

At the end of the day, students can only balance so much work at once. Juniors, like Reid with two to four AP tests, senior exams, and school work being piled on them, can only exert themselves so much before it becomes too much.

Hope Kelly is a Managing Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.