Doubling Down for Exam Time

I have never in my life seen so many students in track shorts, sweat pants and yoga pants as during IB/AP exams month in May.

It looks like every student, including myself, belongs on an episode of “What Not to Wear.”

All throughout May, my fellow IB and AP classmates and I are herded, like overly caffeinated, poorly dressed sheep, into the cafeteria, auditoriums and the library to take exams.

As soon as the moderators say “Times up! Pens down.” (not pencils, IB land prohibits pencils save for graphing), the test takers meander off home or to their next class.

I choose home, in order to get in my exercise for the day. 

Teachers are encouraged not to teach during IB exams, except for reviewing, nor to assign homework. 

School essentially becomes a waste of time.  In math today, I chatted with my table-mates.

Slowly, seniors are literally checking out.

This phenomenon is called senioritis.  However, I mostly see senioritis in the students taking exams.  This is paradoxical, because all year we were the students not skipping class.

A dog has got to have its day.

I have learned from this crazy, college-like examination schedule (which continues for the next three weeks), the following three life lessons:

1.)  Do not try to drink Red Bull twice in 12 hours to increase concentration.  Sure, I wrote a 1,200 word English paper with an hour to spare. But Red Bull gave my heart wings-and by wings I mean palpitations.

2.)  Whenever something, it does not matter what, is scheduled to end at a certain time, add at least fifteen minutes to that time.  Nothing is that precise.

3.)  Wearing workout clothes can inspire you to go home and exercise. Who cares if it looks like Stacy and Clinton need to knock down the walls of the Blue Cafeteria?