For the first time since the pandemic started, California schools have started state testing. The 9th grade class was doing physical testing. I was surprised that the state would issue this for testing and was very interested in what the freshmen were tested on so I interviewed freshman athlete and fellow journalist Roman Gislimberti on what the testing was like. Roman tuned me in and said, “It was pretty boring, it was just a lot of waiting around, we got split up into groups and did the pacer test, and the push up test, and the crunch test, it was really easy.” Sounds like a lot of boring physical testing happened to these freshman.

Luckily for myself and the rest of the sophomore class, we got it off easy this year and were not required to do any state testing. The sophmores have been meeting in the auditorium and listening to guest speakers. I personally really enjoyed the presentation about drugs and the effect on our bodies. 

I understand that doing these tests is a requirement from the state of California but there are definitely a few cons that come from it. The main issue I have is with the change in the schedule. Personally I am sick of how many changes in the schedule there have been this year. The recent schedule change made all periods just over an hour long and opened a space for a two hour testing period in between first and second period. This also made it so lunch is after the testing period leading 2 periods to happen after lunch. These changes were very irritating for me and many other students I consulted my concerns with. Worst of all, this schedule made the day go 38 minutes longer. This is just completely absurd that we are required to stay at school even longer than we typically do, especially for the tenth grade class who does not even have to take the test. 

I interviewed my good buddy Dante Bruice (6 foot 7 inches) as I was wondering how he felt about having to deal with another schedule change and having a much longer school day. Dante stated, “You know, I deal with it differently every day. The first day I was very angry that I had to go to a 2 hour assembly just to grind fall guys the whole time. On Wednesday however, my friends and I thought outside the box and enjoyed a nice round of golf at Twin Lakes.  So I would say I am pretty indifferent about the schedule change for the week because if you put your mind to it you won’t have to suffer!”  

Luckily for us students, this schedule only lasted a few days before returning to normal, but it sure caused lots of controversy between San Marcos students.