Sarah Burnham

With warmer weather and Summer on the way, students have a tendency to feel burned out and have a desire to go outside, but when this feeling hits students frequently, they begin to experience a drop in GPA just before finals.

Usually at this point in the school year, students lose much of their motivation because they have been in school for eight of the nine months of the year, and feel it’s pointless.

“They have relentlessly pushed and pushed and pushed themselves for [an extended period of time], realizing there’s no rest for the weary. They feel burned out and worn out and can’t get the motivation up to do much at all,” Brown University’s Division of Counseling and Psychological Services said.

Those who procrastinate due to a lack of motivation rarely acknowledge that it’s a lack of motivation, but rather justify their procrastination by making excuses that make it seem like procrastination is what is best for them.

“Procrastinators tell lies to themselves. Such as, ‘I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow.’ or ‘I work best under pressure.’ But in fact they do not get the urge the next day or work best under pressure. In addition, they protect their sense of self by saying ‘this isn’t important’, ” Psychology Today Magazine said.

Students find distractions all around them.

“When I feel really unmotivated, I find myself cooking or cleaning or doing laundry —just about anything to help me push the work off until later. I’m naturally a bit of a procrastinator, but I never really actively and deliberately avoid my work until really late in the school year,” freshman Gabrielle Thompson said.

Teachers are often pressured with responsibility of keeping students motivated.

“[Initiating motivation] is not impervious to outside influence. Some teachers manage to do something, or be something, that persuades students to read about, talk about, and write about content, and so learn it. [Educators can] reconnect with students at the end of breaks and weekends, vary their teaching style, arrange for guest presenters or show videos,” Duquesne University’s Center for Teaching Excellence said.

Science teacher Colleen O’Toole, however, finds that it is up to the student to meet the teachers halfway.

“In my experience, there really is no tried-and-true method for keeping kids motivated. Their parents can ground them or take away their car, as a teacher you can be encouraging and funny in class, but at the end of the day, the student really has to light their own fire,” O’Toole said.

Finals and AP exams are quickly approaching. Despite spring fever and the strong itch to just go ride a bike or hang out with friends, there is still a dire need to hang in there, crank through the books and bring up your grades point-by-point until May 21 to finish out the school year strong.