Every year freshmen students in high school have to take the regents. The number of regents a student might have to take can vary (generally between one to four, however it can be more). Some students find that preparing for these exams can be extremely stressful and frustrating, while others think of it as no big deal. Being that the upperclassmen have taken most, if not all of their regents, they have experience and advice to give to freshmen on how they should prepare for regents week.

A sophomore at MBHS, Jenna Dari, is taking her first round of regents this year, and has expressed how she is feeling now that her exams are coming up, and how she plans to prepare for them. She shared that the exams are “stressing [her] out” because she has to “study and remember everything [she] had learned from the beginning of the year.” She plans to prepare for the exams by studying a lot, and making sure she gets “a lot of sleep the night before, and eat[s] breakfast on the day of.”

A senior at MBHS, Saara Mohammed, has taken a total of 9 regents exams throughout her high school career, and has advice to give on this topic. Ms.Mohammed’s first piece of advice is that if a student might be “struggling with a class, getting the Barron’s Regents Exams and Answers book really helps.” Sometimes doing some targeted studying on ones own can be extremely helpful. Another piece of advice Ms.Mohammed had to give was “Don’t stress, and [go] to all of the prep sessions the school provides.”

The prep sessions can also be very helpful when going over material that might have been taught in the beginning of the school year, and is not fresh in your memory, or going over topics that were harder to understand. Her last piece of advice was that “relaxing the day before is essential” therefore, she prepares the day before an exam by watching her favorite shows.

There are also many external forces which put pressure on students to do well. This might involve parents, peers, teachers, and the school. Arnold Dodge, a writer for the Huffington Post, had stated that there is a dramatic decrease in regents scores such as “ from 65% to 31% in math proficiency and from 55% to 31% in English Language Arts proficiency.” Knowing that this decrease has taken place, raises concern, and thus puts the pressure on students to perform better on these tests.

I believe that as long as a student has worked their hardest during the school year, and is willing to take any help they can get, is the best way to prepare for these types of state exams. Of course, keeping stress to a minimum is also as important. However, going into a test confident of what you know is essential. Therefore, I think that routines in preparing varies from student to student, but the most important thing is to feel confident with these tests.