In the midst of the 2019 December, a week before finals, the students of Ladue Horton Watkins High School endeavor and cram heaps of studying to balance their grades.

“School has been great this year. Although we have a lot of homework, it is okay because finals are coming up and we are about to be done with the first semester,” sophomore Daniel Du said.

According to a survey from the University of Phoenix, high schoolers receive over 17 hours of homework a week. When students have to balance sports and extracurriculars with their homework, sometimes things get out of hand.

“My grades in some classes aren’t as good as I want them to be. I’m just looking to bump them up a bit with finals,” Du said.

The week before finals, most students choose to spend their free time preparing for their tests. With seven exams squeezed in four days, students don’t have much time to transition between subjects. It is not surprising that a typical night for many may include just studying.

“Usually, the classes I need to do better at I put more time into studying. It takes maybe four to five hours studying everything a day,” Du said.

Although studying is important, it is also crucial to take in some free time and relax. According to a study by the Association of Psychological Science, students learn more when given rest time; successful students take opportunities to recuperate when learning.

“My secret strategy for the finals is to study. But brain breaks are important too. Always take a good brain break between studying,” sophomore Samuel Liu said.

Teachers at Ladue understand the burden of finals and want their students to succeed. Most do their best and come up with reviews for the tests. A lot of a teacher’s time is also spent taking and answering countless questions.

“The teachers prepare us really well for the finals. Pretty much every teacher gave us a study guide and final reviews. Looking over those reminds me of what to study and remember for the tests,” Du said.

At the end of the day, everyone is in control of their own time. As long as time is spent right with the goal in mind, students will receive the wanted outcome.

“[The difficulty of finals] just depends on if you studied or not. No tests are going to be easy if you didn’t study. Last year for biology my grade was very close to a borderline, but I studied a lot and it turned out just fine,” Du said.

Finals are not all about tests and projects; the students are gifted with winter break afterward. Following the week concentrated with exams, students have a fortnight to do what they please. During this time, holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s Day come up.

“After finals week, I’m free. I’m really excited for the break to come because I am going to hang out with my friends and just spend time together,” Liu said.