Many students jump for joy at the fact of missing school, but I only see it as a huge burden. Making up assessments, missing explanations of the new essay or project, and being a day behind on the most recent material is nothing more than a drag.

There have been countless days when I am ready to escape the stress of school, but the thought of coming back and being flooded with the assignments that I missed simply makes me even more stressed than I was before.

So, when I learned that after taking my first A.P. exam this year I would be allowed to leave school, I wasn’t sure how to react.

At first, I screamed of joy. As time approached and my mind was on Biology overload, I was still quite excited at the thought of leaving school after the exam. Yet, the Sunday before my exam, I decided that I wasn’t sure it was worth being absent from some of my other classes.

“If you make the choice to leave school, it’s your responsibility to make up the work and get the notes. You can’t complain that it’s hard to make it up because you didn’t have to miss it in the first place,” Melissa Beretta ’14 said.

Once I was done with my exam, I had already missed four periods just from taking the test, missing the rest of the day didn’t seem like a smart decision. My lunch trip to Sherwood Diner was a luxury, not a necessity, and since I wasn’t missing a core class, I decided that would be okay. Then, I chose to come back for the rest of my classes, knowing that upcoming tests would just be that much more difficult if I missed the period.

Being a sophomore, I don’t have a great deal of knowledge about A.P. classes, as I was in my first one this year. However, after taking the test and experiencing what it’s like, I don’t think students should be allowed to get out of the rest of their classes.

Yes, preparation for the test is strenuous and tiresome. However, the test itself is played up to be much worse than it actually is. Every year sophomores are forced to take the over two hour long CAPT tests and then finish the rest of the school day. Why should this be any different?

Chemistry teacher, Andrew Strauss, said that he had mixed feelings about the issue, but concluded that “you don’t want to miss your classes unnecessarily. It’s in your best interest to be here.”

I’m definitely not saying that taking a college level class all year and preparing for an exam does not deserve a break. However, I think it can come back to bite students if they miss important classes.

My proposal? Take a thirty-minute break, grab some food, take a drink of water, and push through your classes for the rest of the day.

When you get home: take a nap.