By Carly Walkowiak ’14 | Staff Writer

Different perspectives of the ACT should ease the stress of the Junior Class.

Since junior year is known to be one of the most difficult academic year of one’s life, and the constant testing, it is inevitable that a junior will be feeling stressful.

Juniors, such as Mandy Wang and Gen Hummer, are already pleased with their scores, so they do not plan on intensely studying for the ACT that is provided as part of South’s testing.

“I don’t want to blow it off because that’s just silly,” said Wang.  “I could possibly surprise myself and do better than I did before.”

For her first ACT, Wang studied out of practice ACT books and took weekly classes that prepared her for the test, she said.

“The books mostly helped with what was going to be on the test, and the classes taught me how to approach the test,” said Wang.

However, even though they are content with their previous scores, they are aware that it would not be fair to the school if they didn’t take the test seriously, Hummer said. The schools’ test scores contribute to the schools’ funding for future purposes, said English teacher Nicolas Provenzano.

“Even though the funding aspect doesn’t apply to juniors now, it could apply to their younger siblings, or future South students,” Provanzano.

Unlike Hummer and Wang, DeeDee Burns has already taken the ACT and truly underestimated the difficulty of the test, she said.

“I thought that I would breeze through the ACT, because of my solid grade point average,” Burns said. “Since I didn’t take it as seriously before, I am approaching it a lot differently.”

Burns asked her mom to sign her up for classes and now she said she feels a lot more confident about the test this Tuesday.

There are also juniors who will be taking the test for the first time. Ardi Bousheri ’14 has not taken his ACT, and has not begun studying or taking any classes to help prepare him.  Bousheri said he is hoping to do well, but is also looking at this as a test-run before he takes the test more seriously.

“I have an idea of what I’m capable of, and I have done exceptionally well on practice tests, and from what I’ve heard, those are a lot harder than the ACT itself is,” Bousheri said.

Provenzano said he recommends that students go on ACT.org and use the free online practice tests with instant feedback and test tips.  However, that is not always going to help students with the essay on the ACT, but looking over previous essays and practicing grammar rules will help a lot as well.

“English is always something that is hard to study for, but South students are familiar with what the English portion will look like,” said Provenzano.

Not only do the Juniors have to attend their regular classes, but there will be three tests this week that are important in regards to South and the juniors individually. Which will probably mean stress for the class of 2014.  However, as long as the Juniors are well rested, have a filling breakfast and review their previous South-provided practice tests, testing week will fly by.