Melting snow, blossoming flowers and growing temperatures all contribute to a feeling most seniors in high school experience—senioritis—and it can be remedied. 

Senioritis isn’t an official diagnosable illness like many real and apparent diseases, yet it’s still a serious ailment affecting many seniors in high school nationwide. It’s where second semester seniors lack the will to try in school and want to graduate already. This leads to a decrease in motivation and performance in school, vital to the senior’s chances in getting into college, according to Carla Woodman of Northeastern University. Although it seems bad, all hope isn’t lost and there are plenty of ways to ditch senioritis and enjoy the senior year.  

One way seniors keep themselves busy and motivated in school starts with getting involved in extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities can range from joining a sport’s team to an after school club; they prove to help build drive in the student to return to school each day to look forward to the after-school activity,according Steven Wesley Craft of the University of Southern Mississippi. Students who participate in extracurricular activities have slightly higher grade point averages, SAT scores and miss fewer days of school, according to Craft.

Another way senioritis can be combated is to set academic goals for oneself to achieve in senior year. This is especially important to seniors who seek to graduate with their buddies on the special day and failing classes isn’t going to aid in that. That’s why making academic goals in improving work habits and grades not only solve the problem of not being able to graduate but also help prepare the seniors for college. Organization, goal setting, and studying are skills that translate to experience usable in college success. Goal setting also reduces stress as it’s easier to keep track of the tasks on the plate and not slip up. So, if one  struggles with staying motivated in school, improving academic performance through improving habits can shrug the struggle off.

In the end, there’re a plentiful amount of ways a senior can effectively battle senioritis and push through the year. This advice also applies to juniors now as what they can do to prevent or alleviate what many seniors are feeling now, next year.