“Third quarter is a killer,” claims West Jefferson student

By: Grace S.

Third quarter started with darkness. On January 8, the first day of the third quarter, the sun set at 5:25: a mere three hours after school got out. Surrounded by freezing temperatures and gloom, students finished their first difficult day of many.

Third quarter is widely renowned as the most difficult quarter. In it, students witness the temperature, their grades, and their motivation plummet as they are left to their own devices to survive the avalanche of pressure, grades, and seasonal apathy.

Having almost finished her first third quarter in high school, freshman Grace Kitchen noted the abundance of expectations that come with third quarter. “Since you already know how to do everything, they expect more out of your work...You just try to do your best, but then other things get in the way.”

These “other things” she is referring to are all the extracurricular activities she participates in during third quarter. “I’m in student council year-round, but now I’m in musical and track is starting. And we just got done with our band concert where we went to Madison Plains and we got judged there.”

Kitchen revealed she feels like she is sacrificing a part of herself. “I haven’t gone out at all third quarter...I’m really tired. And I’m really hungry. And I’m really thirsty...I feel like I’m killing myself over all of this stuff that I’m doing.”

The increase in afterschool activities would be difficult enough, but Kitchen also feels less motivated to do her work. Struggles from prior quarters start to take a toll and weigh her down. “If you get a bad grade on something that you tried really hard on, and it keeps happening over and over again, it’s kind of degrading. And then you just kind of give up a little bit because you’re just so mentally exhausted from all the studying and trying your best. You are kind of like ‘what’s the point?’ and then you just accept a C or a D at that point.”

While sophomore Wesley Miller doesn’t experience a drop in a letter grade, he can relate to having time consuming extracurriculars and putting off work until the last minute. He said, “Ironically, it’s the fact that I will get it done at some point. It’s just that, if I don’t do it now, then I will eventually find time for myself to do it later.” He called that his “procrastination logic”, claiming since he was going to get it done anyway, he “might as well put it off.”

He claimed “third quarter is a killer” and that “I can never really find time to get stuff done during third quarter especially.” His time after school is spent on his “whole boatload” of extracurriculars instead of homework.

Miller said snows days pile on added stress. “I mean, they’re great and all, I appreciate a break from school every once in a while, but, it also gives me the excuse to put everything off until later. And often if I do get stuff done during snow days, it’s at the very end of the day, at 8 o'clock at night.”

Erica Lewis, junior at West Jefferson, participates in track during third quarter. She compared third quarter to running a 1600 in track. “Third quarter is just dragging. It’s like the third lap of the mile. First two is an 800, easy. You’re alright. But then that third really hits you and then the fourth- you just gotta get it out.”

She acknowledged “I’ve worked really hard the last two nine-weeks,” so taking a quarter off won’t “make or break my grade, I know I’m going to get an A, so why try?” Because of this, she considers third quarter her “treat yourself” quarter, which leads her to walk on thin ice between the grade she wants, and those she doesn’t.

School “comes easy” to her, so she considers herself a generally unmotivated person when dealing with schoolwork. “[T]hird quarter just hits real hard,” because she finds herself even less motivated during it.

A rocky start to the quarter sent Lewis into a tailspin trying to recover lost points. She now feels motivated to get her grades up. “I go to spanish every freaking day.”

Students are not alone in noticing the effects of third quarter. Mrs. Bogenrife, the Pre-Calculus and Algebra 1 teacher at West Jefferson High School, notices “[t]hird quarter is typically the hardest for students, particularly in regards to motivation and staying on top of their work.”

She explained that “math builds”, so a student staying on top of their work is vital to surviving third quarter. “If they’ve started to slide during second quarter and then they don’t really know what is going on when we get to third quarter...even if they take a week or two off, they may have trouble getting back in the groove when we start school back third quarter, then they’ve lost that two weeks of material that they might need later in the quarter.”

That coupled with the lack of motivation creates a wintery mix sure to hinder even the greatest of students. On top of that, she noted “an even bigger issue arises during third quarter for students that struggle with motivation.” Students prone to apathy problems in prior quarters have to fight through more valiantly to get to the top of the mountain.

Expectations, extracurriculars, and unmotivation snowball into a blizzard of emotions. Third quarter drains students mentally and leaves them wishing for sunny skies during fourth quarter.