There is an ongoing debate on which grade in high school is the most difficult, but in truth all grades have their own challenges.

In freshman year, students are just being introduced to high school and have to get used to the new surroundings. In sports, it is almost certain that students will be put on the freshman team.

In sophomore year, students start to realize that college is an important factor in their futures. Many start to get lazy and lose motivation. Students are given more responsibility, and this is the time when kids get their driver’s permit.

Junior year, many students will academically exhaust themselves. The change from sophomore year is hard. This is especially because many get hit with a ton of work load that they did not expect. Many experience sleep deprivation and stress. In a year or less, they will be applying to college, and this year will be the most recent year worth of grades that colleges will see.

Some students in senior year start to develop “senioritis,” which is the decrease in performance and the lack of motivation during the final stretch until graduation. And once they get off track, it is hard to get back on.

The difficulty of each year is normally decided by which classes you take, what kind of teachers you have, and the environment of the classes.

But it seems that most students agree that junior year is the most academically challenging. Students start to think about college around this time, and there is the added pressure of studying for the SAT and ACT test. This will also probably be the busiest and hardest of your high school years.

“I believe that 11th grade was the most challenging due to the amount of work we were given and many of the IB classes students took,” senior Emmanuel Riverson said. “I also felt least motivated my sophomore year mostly because of my teachers, as they were moody half of the time.”

Extra work in junior year seems to be a common theme.

“The hardest grade for me was probably junior year. Not only was it my first year as an IB candidate, but it was when the school workload really ramped up,” senior Mustafah Qureshi said. “Even though it is still this way now as a senior, I was not used to completing large assignments after large assignments repeatedly. The expectations in class were unpredictable from previous school years,.”

However, everyone has their own personal experiences in high school.

“A lot of people argue that junior year is the most challenging but I would say senior year is hard if not harder,” senior Emerson Rivera said. “You will have to work on college applications during your first semester if you plan on going to college.”