“April showers bring May flowers.” This is one of the most common sayings when the weather starts to get gloomy during spring, but it doesn’t only apply to the weather. For the juniors in high school, ‘April showers’ means a month straight of state testing.
At Lakeland High School, the first to come is the SAT, followed by three weeks of ISATs. For the juniors, this should be a time of heightened stress, especially for the ones who really care about doing good on these tests.
High school is stressful enough, so when testing season comes around, the juniors have yet another layer of stress piled on to their load.
Lakeland has already completed it’s SATs, and over the next three weeks, one day a week will be dedicated to the ISATs, with the English ISAT getting two days.
While this season of high school is really stressful for most, the Lakeland juniors are not too worried about it. These students view the tests as just another thing that’s happening that they can get through.
Junior Stormy Lawson is one of these students that feels testing season is just a bump in the road.
She was not at all nervous for her SAT and is not nervous for her upcoming ISATs. She says this is because of a piece of advice her dad gives her.
“‘Focus on what you’re doing, not how you’re doing,’” Lawson said.
She has also done a bit of studying, but that was just the small assignments her teachers have “forced upon” her in class.
The Lakeland juniors all seem to be in a similar state of mind as Lawson; ISATs are something that is required to graduate, and the juniors want to do just that. So they do what they need to to prepare themselves, but the ISATs are not really something they feel like they need to worry about. The SATs were a more stressful time, since these scores are more commonly asked for from colleges.
Lawson’s quote seems to be a common mindset; the juniors are focusing on what they can control, not what’s coming and how it might negatively effect them.
Testing season is stressful for most, but the Lakeland juniors seem to be doing just fine. The ‘May flowers’ will be worth it when state tests are over and all that is left to worry about it getting through the last month of the school year before the class of 2027 takes on their senior year.