As MVHS students return from their Thanksgiving breaks, they apprehensively enter the dreaded weeks before finals. Sophomores, juniors and seniors have already experienced the hellish experience of two-hour exams for each subject. However, freshmen are yet to complete their first set of high school finals. In an attempt to assuage the fears of the freshmen, the MVHS Link Crew, an organization on campus dedicated to improving the lives of ninth graders, has organized its annual “Cocoa and Cram.”
Cocoa and Cram is a way for freshmen to meet with their link leaders to get some extra help in studying for their finals, with the added incentive of free hot chocolate.
“As a freshman, [you tend to be] pretty nervous because you don’t really know what finals is all about,” junior Abhijit Tirumala, a link leader, said. “This is so experienced juniors and seniors can help the freshmen understand.”
As freshmen complete their first semester of high school, they begin to understand the difference in the amount
of effort it takes to excel in high school, as opposed to middle and elementary school.
“[In general,] I’m not a great studier. Usually, in elementary and middle school I just wouldn’t study for tests but I’d be just fine,” freshman Daisy McCarthy said. “But I’m learning that isn’t going to be the case [at Monta Vista].”
Many freshmen weren’t sure what to expect of their first finals, and attended Cocoa and Cram to feed off of the academic expertise of the experienced upperclassmen.
“Since we’re upperclassmen we kind of know what it’s like to be in that situation where you don’t know what to study or how to study,” junior Ashika Jaiswal, another link leader said. “We’re helping them learn the subject as well as giving them guidance on how to be prepared for whatever [their final] might throw at them.”
Tirumala believes that in actuality, finals are overly anticipated, and hopes to share his beliefs with the freshmen.
“I feel like they need [Cocoa and Cram] because they will be able to receive the right guidance and advice in terms of studying for finals and how finals aren’t that bad in reality,” Tirumala said.
Jaiswal echoed this sentiment, recounting her experiences as a freshman taking her first final.
“For my first final, I did not know what to expect so I kind of over-studied and I was really frantic the entire week. I think it was really unhealthy for me because I did not know what I was doing,” Jaiswal said. “Having [Cocoa and Cram] really helps the freshmen with that, but it also kind of gives me that feeling of ‘I can help people get over that feeling.’”
