For many, the first quarter is full of the excitement of new classes, new people, and a fresh start. However, once students get into the groove of the new school year and the calendar continues to progress, often students begin losing momentum and motivation causing their grades to take a hit.

The ‘second-quarter slump’ can be explained by several changes that occur towards the end of the semester.

Most importantly, the workload becomes increasingly more intense after the ball gets rolling in the first quarter. Once teachers have demonstrated and outlined their expectations and the curriculum turns from review into new material, students find it more difficult to keep up with their schoolwork.

To add to the more challenging work, half-days, Thanksgiving break, and winter break all leave little time to fit in all the material necessary to finish out the semester. After break, there were just less than two weeks until midterms to cram in several weeks worth of subject material and tests. Unexpected snow days also have shortened the time that students have been able to prepare properly for exams.

Triton Junior Lily Fullford has said, “we have to deal with disturbances so it’s hard to get into a good groove.”

In addition, often students naturally tend to lose their motivation to work hard after a while. They start procrastinating more and caring less about their grades.

In addition to the lack of effort contributed by students, many start getting more and more comfortable with their teachers and begin pushing their limits. They might skip a class or two, or possibly start turning in late assignments, or whatever the case may be. As soon as they get away with it once, they’re encouraged to do it again; and so the cycle continues.

Grades typically peak during the first quarter, when motivation is high and the work is the easiest it will be and take a fall during the middle of the year at second and third quarter when the workload is heaviest. Grades typically rise back up during the fourth quarter when students are excited and motivated to get out of school and start summer vacation.

“Midterms really mess with second quarter grades because you think you have good grades and then you have exams the entire last week. It’s a lot to keep up with,” said Triton Senior Ellie Odoy.

Triton Senior Haley Morgan has a different outlook; she says she thinks the second quarter is so hard because “there’s nothing to look forward to…it’s not event season [anymore] and the year isn’t even close to over!”

The phenomenon is not exclusive to seniors.

New to the Triton High School scene, freshmen are also feeling the second quarter blues. Triton Freshman James Tatro said that “everything seems to be moving really fast and midterms came up fast.”

Triton students are not the only ones who feel this way; Senior Sellers McDaniel of The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia shared her thoughts on the so-called ‘slump’. She said she believes grades decline during this time because “people stop caring because they are already in school and as long as they don’t fail they keep enrollment at their college or university.”

Another student from outside of Triton also weighed in on her thoughts on the phenomenon: “I think grades tend to slide because after the January 1st deadline that most colleges have I feel like I can breathe and having only 5 months of high school left, I prioritize making memories over making good grades,” said Senior Ciara Morrissey of Mount St. Joseph Academy in Flourtown, PA.

It’s clear that students across the school and country are counting down the days to the end of the semester when they can start fresh again.