With only a few months left of my senior year, I have noticed students, including myself, struggling to stay motivated, falling into the familiar “senioritis” stereotype. Characterized by a total lack of energy to complete assignments, study for tests, and participate in class, the phenomenon often referred to as senioritis is used to describe students’ so called laziness during their senior year of high school. However, in my view, “senioritis” feels more like a result of endless years of pressure to succeed and achieve honors, not lack of care. Furthermore, by characterizing these students as “lazy”, we completely disregard the realities of students’ declining mental health and risk overlooking systemic burnout.
Once you make it to the last year of high school, you are tired of balancing school work, extracurriculars, college applications, and standardized testing. In 2025, 93 Woods students took a total of 20 AP Exams with 79% receiving a 3 or better, as displayed in the Woods Charter School 2025-26 School Profile. Having these high standards of achievement at small competitive charter school puts an excessive amount of pressure and anxiety onto each student.
While teachers are understandably trying to prepare their students for college, there needs to be more awareness for knowing when to take a break. Over time, this balance becomes exhausting, making students less focused on learning.
“I’m tired and I’m done. I have no motivation to do anything,” exclaims senior Catherine Cooper.
What many people call senioritis is, in reality, burnout. Burnout isn’t laziness, it’s mental exhaustion caused by an overload of stress. Even though I still care about getting good grades, I feel extremely overwhelmed by schoolwork and therefore find it difficult to complete assignments. My motivation didn’t stop because I stopped caring; it stopped because I studied until I was completely empty.
Instead of seeing senioritis as a negative thing, I believe that teachers should recognize it as a sign for support—encouraging less assigned homework, tests, prioritizing our mental health, and acknowledging the struggle at the end of the year but helping us finish our senior year. Senioritis is the result of years of pressure, and as such should be taken seriously, not dismissed as simply lack of effort.
