If asked, most students could go on for hours about the amount of stress they face while balancing studying for midterms and completing other schoolwork.  Midterm Week 2013 is taking an exceptional toll on student morale, and many are asking for a solution.

When Matt Young, a senior, was asked for his thoughts on his midterm week workload, he responded with an eloquent email:

“We dont have a full understanding of the assignments and midterms week is already stressful enough without the added stress of homework, its hard to deviate so much attention to these assignments when we have tests that we need to prepare for, not to mention that we only had 3 days to do all the work and have not had a single actual class this week, and other people also have college interviews that they need to prepare for. in order for us to produce our best work we need more time for the assignments.”

Both he and Erik Herlitz, also a senior, proposed a “ban” on extraneous work during midterms, citing a less stressful experience as their main motivation.

“People would have actual time to study instead of wasting time stressing out.  Not to mention sleep,” said Herlitz.

Indeed, the number of “#teamnosleep” tweets from FHS students during midterms increases dramatically, and at what cost?  According to the students, it’s low grades, test anxiety, and sleep deprivation.  Some students have resorted to sending their teachers strongly-worded emails, hoping for a more manageable workload in the future.