From starting to study weeks in advance to cramming everything in at the last second, students at OHS find different ways to prepare for their exams.

“I’m more of a crammer, procrastinator,” junior Ayanna Shaw said. “I get a bunch of pillows and a bunch of blankets, food, everything I need, put it in one spot on the floor, and then I’ll study for 45 minutes, and then I’ll take a break for 15 minutes, and then I’ll study, and then I’ll take a break.”

Shaw has to take six exams this semester and suggested that those like her, with an overload of studying ahead of them, fight off the coming stress by getting ahead of schedule.

“Just review a little bit everyday,” Shaw said. “The more you review, the less you’ll have to study. You’ll have it committed to memory.”

Sophomore Lila Grace Lara is lucky enough to only have to take three exams, but that does not mean she isn’t feeling the stress.

“The ones I have to take just happen to be my hardest classes,” Lara said.

Thankfully for Lara, she has multiple plans for success in preparing for the exams.

“Most teachers get a study guide. I just find all the answers to the study guide and put them on the Quizlet and go over it a lot in my head,” Lara said.

For those still concerned about exams, calculus teacher Christopher Baughman has some advice, whether it be for taking his exam (voted by the students in a Yearbook poll last year to be one of the hardest) or any other.

“The best advice I can give is to make sure you pay attention. Do everything you can do leading up to that point,” Baughman said. “Use your technology. If you know you’re struggling, for instance, in calculus on curve sketching, google ‘curve sketching AP exam problems’. Get plenty of rest. Some people do well with all-nighters, and other don’t so know how you perform at your best and do what it takes to be at your best.”

Baughman hopes that students will remember that the exam material is nothing more than a review of all that has already been learned throughout the course. The only thing left for students to do is put down the stress and prepare as best they can.

“It’s just like a baseball game,” Baughman said. “If you go into a baseball game knowing you haven’t prepared and haven’t practiced very hard, you’re going to have a high level of anxiety because you haven’t done what it takes to get yourself prepared for that point, but if you’ve done everything you can do and everything a teacher has asked of you, then you’re going to be okay.”