According to the American Tests Anxieties Association, “the majority of students report being more stressed by tests and by schoolwork than by anything else in their lives.” While testing can be stressful in general, there are a few factors that can make the experience even worse.

First off, nobody likes having a test on Monday, and the last thing you want to do after a fun weekend is sit down and study Sunday night. Even if you can manage to focus, come Monday, it’ll take some time to readjust to the school routine. “It’s nice to have a review day right before you take a test,” says sophomore Lily Cushman. Though Monday tests can be tough, tests directly after a long weekend are a lot worse. If you end up with a teacher cruel enough to assign one of these, good luck. Next, there are the Friday tests: slightly better than Mondays, but still torturous. By this point, everybody’s ready for a break, but you can’t let go just yet! You’ve got a test fourth hour and need to get at least a B.

Similarly, first and sixth hour are by far the worst hours to test in. Half the class is practically sleeping during first hour and the other half is definitely superhuman. In sixth hour, most kids are pretty overworked and ready for their school day to be done so they can get onto their already busy lives. Not only are these times irritating on their own, but the inconvenience is also heightened on collaborative days. On a normal day, we have 58 minutes of class; on a collaborative day, we have 48 minutes. “We don’t have enough time to take tests when classes are shortened by collab,” said Max Psihos, a sophomore. The time difference may seem short, but those ten minutes could very well affect the test outcome, as well as increase stress within the testing environment.

Ultimately, there is nothing worse than having multiple tests all scheduled for the same week. We’ve all definitely had weeks where all the exams seemed to perfectly line up at the same time, crushing us completely. At one point, the subjects all start to melt together, making time management seemingly impossible. Lastly, in the words of Cushman, “The worst time to take tests is definitely in classrooms where there’s no air conditioning.”