With less than 10 days left in the 2010-11 school year, students are able to become nostalgic of even their struggles. For freshmen, the biggest hurdles were challenging classes and handling large amounts of homework.
“This year wasn’t too hard except for my language classes like English and Spanish,” freshman Yoseph Tiguh said.
Becoming accustomed to the rigor of high school was not made any easier by adolescent distractions like iPods, Facebook and Twitter.
“Next year I plan to not procrastinate as much. [Procrastination] really stressed me out,” freshman Kessarin Horvath said.
Sophomore Sherief Adel-Latif believes that his year, academic-wise, was good. “It was my first year doing all honors, and I’m doing great so far.”Adel-Latif plans to continue with higher level learning next year, and will do the IB Diploma.
According to a recent survey of 122 AHS students, 81 percent participate in a sport or an extra-curricular activity. A significant amount of AHS students, 30 percent, only participate in one sport per year, while 11 percent are ‘three-peate athletes’. The typical sports practice takes place five times per week, and the typical club meetings take place weekly, leaving little time for homework.
On a daily basis, 54 percent of the surveyed students spend two to three hours on their homework. About two percent of students spend six or more hours on homework.
“I was unprepared for the challenges I would face doing a sport,” freshman Katherine Ross said. “For a while my grades suffered. But I’ve adjusted and I feel like it helps my grades now because I get rid of excess tension from the school day.”
Students were asked the amount of their assignments they complete on a daily basis, and 52 percent said they have most of their assignments completed daily. Barely one percent said they get none of their assignments done every day and 28 percent said they complete all of their assignments.
According to sophomore Hung Truong, involvement in sports has really helped his academic performance. “I tend to perform better in school and complete more assignments during the season than off season,” Truong said.
The Class of 2011 contains some of the most academically stressed students, yet it also has some of the most wistful members of AHS.
“[This year] was very difficult. Not only [were there] the IB tests, there’s college applications and scholarships, and teachers put pressure on you to not have ‘senioritis’ early on,” senior Kari Berg said. Berg will leave AHS forever and attend University of South Carolina next year.