Imagine incoming freshman entering high school. They want to be the student that stands out from the crowd when it comes to popularity to become the "big man on campus". However, the reality is when you enter high school, the primary goal is to get into a prestigious college or university, such as MIT, Harvard, or Columbia University. Not only do you, as a student, have to graduate; you need to work hard to the best of your ability to graduate in the top of your class.
A path that is often chosen for numerous students who want to get accepted into an elite college is to take endless amounts of classes. More specifically, Advanced Placement classes. With the wide spectrum that high schools provide, a great number of students choose to take the AP class to achieve a college credit that they can add to their transcripts. That is even if the college that a student is willing to go to will accept that credit. Teachers place more than enough pressure on their students who think will pass the AP Exam. It would be quite depressing to believe that all of the hard work any student put into his or her class was wasted by not receiving a passing score, or not enough of a passing score that their college of selection will accept that credit.
If studying for AP Tests are not stressful enough, taking standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT can be even more stressful. These types of standardized tests are difficult to study for. Ever since I first took the SAT, I received low or average scores, because my reading has been keeping me from achieving a high score. Every time I encounter that section, I attempt to strategize on how to answer the multiple choice questions correctly. However, I am a slow reader under a time limit, and the passages can be difficult to understand. This means I have to spend more time studying and taking this test multiple times until I achieve the score I want.
Now, in the middle of taking Advanced Placement courses and studying for standardized tests, students have to figure out how they can get accepted into the college of their choice. In recent years, the college acceptance rate has been narrowing fairly quickly. Receiving a 4.0 for an unweighted grade point average is not enough to enroll in a good college. To get into the best colleges, you have to be in the top ten of your class and have your grade point average above 4.0. Then, you need to apply for some extracurricular activities to make your resume extraordinary. Once you get to college, many people have the opportunity to discontinue their extracurricular activity that they did in high school.
Now with all of this in mind, the question every high school student that is enduring this is asking is, "where does the fun begin?" The fun in high school comes once in a lifetime with clubs, pep rallies, homecoming, and prom. However, high school should be a place where you can cultivate the desire to develop yourself socially and figure out who you are. High school should not be a place where students are bombarded by tests just to make them stressed out by these faceless test makers. Doing everything they can as students outside the academic field, such as clubs and socializing can relax them and take their minds off of their rigorous classes for a few moments.
