The Pressure of Distance Learning Finals

During Distance Learning many students’ grades have slipped, and pressure is unimaginable.This is a difficult time for everybody, and students are still having to perform well on tests and assessments while being overwhelmed during virtual learning, and a pandemic is a lot. 

Finals under these new circumstances offer a new level of pressure than past finals. The weeks leading up to finals many classes did not even talk about the tests because finals were almost cancelled like they were in March, when the school year was wrapped up with online classes. 

Once students were able to know more information about finals most things fell into place. We were then aware of what we would be tested on, and were able to receive help, but even though that relieves some stress many are still worried about technical issues. These include disconnection during the tests, not being able to join, and/ or the inability to turn on the camera. 

Many teachers are also going to be strict on cameras since it is such a large test, but even though we are many months into distance learning numerous students in my classes along with myself have still had those exact issues. To get a better perspective on a student experiencing these issues I asked a fellow student in the 10th grade, Evelyn Blachly if she has had technical issues recently.

Evelyn mentioned, “Yes definitely almost everyday last week I would have some technical thing. An instance that comes to mind is my history class. I have been kicked out of that class many times recently.” 

This is just one student’s story, and the worst part is it can’t really be helped since the issues are because 30+ kids are in a zoom meeting so there are bound to be at least some small issues. I believe that this will only be worse with online finals since the computers, and students are expected to have their camera on, and stay connected for up to 2 hours. 

With the conditions around these finals it is safe to say that for many students they have just brought stress, worry, and anxiety which can’t be healthy. I wanted to ask another student’s opinion on this as well so I spoke to Kory Odisho in the 10th grade how he felt his mental health was during this time if he felt comfortable sharing.

Kory expressed, “I feel unbelievably stressed during all this, and it doesn’t help that any technical issues can’t be predicted before the finals, so I just kind of feel like I’m hoping for the best for the actual tests, and spreading any extra time I have studying.”

Finals will be stressful no matter what because it’s such a big testing time, but finals’ worrying shouldn’t be about whether or not some students are even going to be able to stay connected during the test. The pressure during these finals are expected to hold a lot of negative emotions. I want to take this time and wish everyone the best, and offer a reminder of perseverance because even though we can’t control any technical issues we can do what we can to be prepared for the actual final, and take any issues following that as they come. 

It is a very crazy time, and we are all fighting some struggles, and having finals under these circumstances probably isn’t helping. I wish everyone the best during this week. We have had to adapt to the circumstances we have all been given in a pandemic, and try to manage our stress and worry the best we can. It’s amazing that we pushed to this point, and students and staff alike all deserve our break.