(COVINGTON, La.) In a poll taken by 36 St. Paul’s seniors, 27 of those students say that their senior year has been harder than they thought it would be. That is 75% of those surveyed. This might comes as a shock to underclassmen, considering that tales of senioritis and low work loads would hopefully lead to an easy final year wearing the blue and gold.

“I don’t know where seniors learned that it was supposed to be easy,” Senior Counselor Rene Miller said. “There’s a lot more expectations. You are taking care of college applications, doing scholarship applications and just realizing that you’re leaving. There are a ton of external factors that are playing into every day as opposed to just going to school.”

Senioritis is not a myth. In fact, it is what many believe has made their senior year so much more difficult. Senioritis is defined as a supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance. With college just around the corner, seniors have a natural inclination to lose motivation in their final two semesters of high school. Suddenly, it becomes harder to study, work, and prepare for even the most challenging courses of senior year.

“Last year, when I was around the seniors, I thought they were just slacking a lot of the time,” senior Christian Butler said. “So I just assumed it was because they didn’t have much work to do, and I was very wrong.”

The class load of a senior at SPS is not a breeze for sure. The curriculum consists of a math (Calculus, Advanced Math, or Advanced Math II), a science (Physics or Chemistry II), an english (Literature or English IV), civics, and Religion IV. Honors and advanced placement classes are optional for the core curriculum classes. Seniors have two elective slots where they can choose whatever interests them, but it is more complicated than just having fun when it comes to your senior electives.

Your senior electives are a time to cram in what you need for college. For instance, if you are hoping to major in business, but have only taken fine arts electives at SPS, then senior year is the time to finally take the “Introduction to Business” class. And for another example, perhaps you are planning to take the pre-medical route in college. You might want to take physics, but also use up one of your electives to take Chemistry II, so that you can have experience in organic chemistry before being destroyed by it in college. Point being, many seniors are taking what they need, rather than what they want, to fit into their elective slots.

For tips on how to make your senior year less stressful, and how to avoid senioritis, visit the resources put out by the National College Fairs website.