Looking ahead: Second semester tips for senior students facing senioritis

Among students, an obstacle affecting them is commonly called “senioritis,” characterized by a decline in motivation, performance, and attendance. 

“If you don’t start a project that keeps you active, you can’t get involved and [can] lose focus,” said OH senior Payton Mercil. 

With the accumulation of jobs, homework, sports, and other after-school activities, it is easy for students to become burnt out and lose motivation throughout the year. 

“I don’t have any afterschool activities except for tennis in the spring but it’s off-season now. It doesn’t give me time to think about schoolwork when I’m focused, nor does it affect me,” said Mercil. 

Though these activities might encourage involvement in school, they don´t decrease motivation. However, this lack of motivation has become normalized to staff and students. While they see students distracted on their phones, causing mayhem in groups, or even falling asleep in class, many teachers seem unconcerned by this. 

“For the first semester, the senioritis rate is nothing more than usual,” said OH counselor Keith Hebert.  

Herbet concluded that the highest rates of senioritis happen in March and April since most students know they can graduate with little work. 

“What most frustrating are those students who have totally given up on putting effort because there’s nothing I can really do to push them to work,” said Hebert. 

All students and teachers can conclude unanimously that senioritis frustrates others more than the students themselves. To combat this students should rely on support systems to focus on future/goals. 

“Keep yourself accountable and have someone to keep you in check,” said Mercil. 

Some parents feel they can do nothing to get their children to put effort into their classes, while others push their students to do the best they can. Individual students need to refocus on themselves to combat senioritis.  

Depending on each student certain methods can work for students who need more motivation to show interest in school. This reasoning is supported by the OHS counselor who knows this subject the best.

“For each of my students, I work on a case-by-case basis,” said Hebert.

Students need to be proactive if they set a goal for themselves to have a deadline. This forces them to show interest in completing their projects if they have a mental or physical deadline they can always see.

¨Develop anxiety, constantly fear that you´ll have homework and you will be forced to do iit,” said OH senior Tyler Becker.

This is a method that works well for someone who has procrastination problems which happen at any phase of a person´s life, not just their senior year. This means if they can visualize deadlines, they can also visualize how to beat it. But if they constantly have a deadline for every project or plan that could work against them.

“Because urgency creates anxiety,” said Hebert.  Anixtey leads one to work quickly, working quickly means one can make mistakes, and that leads to plans or projects that have flaws. So students who suffer from anxiety should always have another method ready to deal with senioritis. 

So even though seniority rates are increasing as students enter their final year they should stay aware of falling for seniority. They need to visualize a plan they have to follow and stick to it. Doing so gives hope to everyone that seniors can finish their final year on a high note.