Ashna Satpathy It is common belief throughout Latin that junior year is the scariest, hardest, most grueling grade in the Upper School. It intimidates Freshman and Sophomores alike, and Seniors are relieved knowing that the hard times are behind them. Junior year is referred to as the ‘spotlight year,’ meaning, the year that colleges care the most about. From pressure to take the hardest classes, to do well in those classes, standardized testing, and keeping up with extracurriculars, it would be wrong to say that Junior year is like any other year of high school. But is the stress of this school year be exaggerated? As Junior year is fast approaching, sophomore Marianne Mihas said, “I’m a little nervous about it just because all of the college stuff really starts. But some of the classes I have taken this year, for example, Nazi Mind and Honors Accelerated Precalculus, are actually harder than the classes I would be taking as a junior, so I’m not too concerned.” From what she has heard as a sophomore, she agrees that “Junior year could be overhyped.” But Junior Shaya Puri believes the hype saying, “Junior year is definitely the hardest year out of all four years. It’s very difficult, but it’s what I expected. It requires a lot more hard work than freshman and sophomore year for sure.” Shaya doesn’t think it’s overhyped, saying “I think it’s like how everyone says it is. You have to be on top of your grades because it is the most important year and then you have to deal with standardized testing, which is a lot.” Junior Aoife Reynolds thinks “it’s a little overhyped, but you also realize how important everything is.” A common theme in Latin’s curriculum is that every year gets harder, and students are expected to step up their game in order to to meet the raising bar teachers place on them. Ms. Barker expressed that in her experience as a teacher, she raises her standards for juniors, and does not treat them differently because it is a ‘spotlight year.’ Perhaps the infamous difficulty of junior year feeds into a competitive and stressful environment for students. Remember that, after all, you never know how something will be until you get there. It may seem simple to base how your life will be in the future on the experiences of others that have gone through it, but remember that many factors make things different for everyone. Additionally, college is not everything, you will end up exactly where you need to be. Getting that B will not be the end all be all, and everyone in this school is capable of living up to their full potential, no matter what letter grade that is.]]>