As the school year winds down, Magnet students are faced with exam season. As our school requires a certain amount of APs to graduate, many students find themselves preparing for AP exams at this time. Even if you are not partaking in the AP craze, you still find yourself preparing for finals and trying to work out a study schedule. If you’re a senior, you may also find senioritis is at it’s worst and it’s really easy to just blow off schoolwork and simply not show up to school. Here is a realistic model of what survival during fourth quarter looks like.

Wake up at 2:00 a.m. in the morning in a nervous panic wondering if your AP physics labs were due two hours ago. Frantically log in to Canvas and sigh in relief seeing that you have 22 more hours to complete your unfinished labs. Fall asleep on your computer and come around at 7:45 a.m. Groggily lift your head up to check the time, shriek, and pull yourself together. Chug a Monster Energy while running out the door with your keys and backpack in hand. Speed to school and hold on to your steering wheel for dear life as you weave between cars at 69 mph on 526*. Take a relieved breath as you close in on the school only to be thwarted by an untimely train that proceeds to take its sweet time getting to its destination. Sit patiently as the train starts moving backwards and you sense your sanity slowly slipping away. Reach school (late), and take your chances crossing the carpool lanes without the protection of Officer Watson. Weighted down with Barron AP test prep books and feeling like a pack mule, trudge to building 8. After you make it to the front office, have a meltdown in front of Ms. Fisher and stumble into your first block AP class 60 minutes late. Face the wrath of your annoyed AP teacher, who will become even more exasperated upon finding out you are in fact not prepared to take the practice AP test that counts as a final. Open up your computer to find that your AP classroom account is locked. Cry until your tears have saturated your computer enough that it will be broken for good. Finally, thank the thoughtful classmate who gives you a printed FRQ to wipe your tears with.

The Monster Energy drink is based on true events. Many Raptors’ choice of fuel is an energy drink, especially during exam season. This tracks with the energy levels required to survive Magnet. While there are some Raptors like Luke Morris (12), who proclaim to “hate energy drinks,” these Raptors seem to be in the minority considering all the empty energy drink cans that can be found in virtually every class recycling bin. Ava Peterson’s (12) caffeination source of choice is coffee, and she playfully muses that “maybe caffeine is addictive. I got like 7 hours [of sleep] but I still really want coffee.”

Sophomores Emily Daniels and Oliver Winebrenner are hitting their stride sophomore year, and give (actually helpful) advice to younger Raptors on the importance of trying to maintain healthy habits. Emily recommends “using your time wisely,” remarking that she learned this the hard way. Oliver recommends to “try to get as much sleep as you can.” (Maybe someone can try this and let me know if more sleep would allow for a decrease in caffeine intake?)

*This is not a real suggestion, please employ discernment and good judgement while driving in the Charleston area or anywhere else.