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Pop Quiz Panic

Pop+Quiz+Panic
Graphic by Julie Bender

Your head sinks into the cold pillow as you click off the lamp sitting beside your bed and finally give all of the muscles in your body the chance to relax. And right as you’re drifting off, you quickly list tomorrow’s classes to make sure that every assignment has been done, quality disregarded.

It hits you.

That 30 page reading you’ve been putting off for a week needs to be done, with notes, by first period. You then have three options:

1) Get out from under your warm cocoon of a bed to retrieve your textbook and stay up at least another hour reading and taking notes.

2) Set your alarm tomorrow morning for 5:00 am so you can get out of bed and do as much as you can, no guarantee that you will finish in time.

3) Groan “whatever” and roll over into a deep sleep.

If you choose either of the first two, you can forget about makeup and tomorrow’s outfit might include Ugg boots and a sweatshirt. But is that better than the chance of the dreaded Pop Quiz?

It’s hard to say.

It’s one thing if your teacher gives you the famous wink. C’mon, you know what I’m talking about.

“Don’t forget to do the reading!”

Wink.

“You might see this coming up very soon!”

Wink.

“Remember this!”

Wink.

Everyone reacts differently. Whether it’s by whining, begging or silently stressing about how to fit in the extra time for studying.

But without warning, when pop quizzes are truly what their name entails, they are awful. When you really don’t see them coming and aren’t prepared, it can turn a good day into something much, much worse.

In the end, yes, I do understand why they exist. They help teachers enforce homework assignments, they allow for extra grades to be put into HomeAccess, and they can be used as checkups so that the teacher can see how the students are doing with new material. But can you blame me for hating them?

With all of the fuss that our school and teachers make about keeping our stress level under control, don’t give us pop quizzes! Yes assessments are necessary, but let’s at least make the wink a requirement. There’s no need to throw a curveball into our already hectic weeks. We shouldn’t be graded on something that we weren’t told to prepare for.

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About the Contributor
Julie Bender, Web Opinions Editor
Baby sitting and journalism may seem to have nothing in common, but Julie Bender ’15 packs both professions into her high school career. While many students were off at camp or vacationing this summer, Bender was hard at work baby sitting families and friends. She was extremely dedicated to her job, practically becoming the neighborhood babysitter. Her baby skills easily compliment to her journalism skills as “dealing with children is like dealing with interviewees.” Using her same dedication towards her baby sitting monopoly, Bender hopes to improve her writing skills before she leaves Staples in 2015. There is no rush, however, as Bender “loves getting the info out” through journalism. After three years of being ruled over by seniors, Bender finally finds herself at the top of the food chain in high school. The best moment of the summer was “taking off the junior parking sticker” Bender said. Finally bursting through the doors as a senior girl, covered in feathers and whistles is a moment that all high school girls can’t wait for. Her excitement as a senior has added on to her excitement for journalism this year. Bender has a passion for opinions and news articles; she loves the fun, fast-paced language that is used in the writing style. It also gives her opportunities to interview unique and interesting people. Her favorite article she wrote, in fact, was an article on Hookah and E-Cig usage in high school because the interview process was one of the most awkward. Whether it is journalism or caring for children, Julie Bender brings all aspects of high school to the table in her last year writing for Inklings. She hopes to end the year strong and keep up with her hard work and dedication in and out of high school.  

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