What happened to good grades and valiant efforts? As students drag their feet through senior year, senioritis starts to kick in. Everyone knows without a doubt that come senior year, the students eventually slack off when it comes to academics.

“It is something that is unavoidable and contagious,” English teacher Mrs. Leigh Kern said. “Seniors ‘check out’ knowing their high school career is coming to an end.”

Many seniors start to develop an “I don’t care attitude.” The sense of urgency goes out the window, and students do just enough to get them through their final year of high school.

“You know that you’re done after this year, and you just get bored of high school,” senior Greg Thompson said. “I’ve had senioritis since the first few weeks of school. I was lazy before, but it’s reached an all time low this year.”

Senioritis is really just an attitude. It’s a laziness that comes when you get tired of doing schoolwork, and the effort you put forth decreases.

Interestingly, It’s something that everyone experiences, not just seniors. Whether it’s in the closing months of your first three years and you’re focused on getting out of school for the summer, or your senior year and you just don’t feel like trying anymore, everyone shows signs of “senioritis.”

“It seems like a lack of care; enough is enough and they want to be done,” science teacher Mr. Rick Dreves said. “It’s something to be concerned about if you haven’t worked hard from the start.  Slacking off when you already have a D is bad; if you have an A, then it’s not so bad.”

One of the most important things to consider when you know you’re going through senioritis is  the number of credits you have and what your grades currently look like. Do you have any leeway? Kids don’t want to take the chance of not passing a class and for seniors potentially not having enough credits to graduate.

Many students think that once they are accepted to college, there is no need to try anymore. However, this is not the case.  Acceptance letters often state “we expect you to do as well or better in your senior year or this acceptance is revoked,” which is something seniors need to be aware of.