Four weeks since the end of summer vacation, the school populace is getting used to its weekly rotation of classes, clubs, and extracurricular activities. For freshmen, high school brings about many changes: new opportunities, new choices, and new challenges.

For Emerald Jiang ’23, the most challenging part of high school is the workload. “[Within] the few first weeks we already have quizzes, minor summatives, and formative tests,” she said. “It is stressful…sometimes you might not understand what [the teachers] are talking about.”

Other students express similar worries. “[I’m] not used to being productive at the beginning of the year,” said Connor Chen, who had been at SAS Pudong for 7 years. “I’m really nervous. Right now I feel like I’m handling pretty well but [in the future] I might get too much homework.”

However, he feels that the increase in workload can also be positive. “I feel very productive,” he concluded.

Other students noticed a fluctuation in the amount of homework given daily. “You could have a lot of homework on one day and all of a sudden none another day,” one said. She believes that time management is crucial to prevent oneself from being overly stressed.

Adapting to the letter grading system has also proved to be a challenge. “I’m scared since we have [letter] grades and [I see my] own grades on Schoology,” said Sophia Sun, concerned about her GPA. 

With the challenges, though, come useful changes as well. 

“[With] a link crew leader, everything is easier, and we get to know the upperclassmen, [which] really helps us transition,” another student said. “I think Flex is really helpful, [because] we can do work. Extended learning is also great if you don’t understand certain concepts”

Many students also found involvement in activities rewarding.

“I get to do what I like since there are more choices [in clubs and ASA’s],” said Jiang, “I can try something new that I’m interested in and continue it on.”