Every student understands the stress of finals week. That black cloud, large and looming overhead, a constant reminder of all future tests to come. Whether it is review packets, projects, or anything in-between, students everywhere will be studying for dear life. However, there is another side to the story people tend to overlook.

Students are so busy preparing for finals, they often forget the people who make the test in the first place. Teachers share anxiety over final exams. They spend their weeks getting everyone ready for that last step before the holiday break arrives. Every lesson is about making sure their classes are progressing the way they need to be in order to excel during exams.

“The most stressful part [of finals] is making sure that we have planned and calendared everything we need to teach so that it gets completed when it needs to be,” Tina Parmar, tenth grade literature teacher, said.

Teachers deal with countless questions, projects gone wrong, and every excuse in the book. It can be a struggle trying to get everything done so quickly, so the flexibility of a normal test is gone. If the class is not progressing properly, teachers may have to take out part of the tests they did not cover..

“While students relax during break, we spend our time preparing for semester two,” Marsha Loversky, journalism and British literature teacher, said.

Teachers and students alike share those late nights with red eyes and textbooks. Whether it is grading papers or reviewing presentations, the overwhelming feeling of these last few weeks before Christmas strikes everyone.