For the typical International Baccalaureate (IB) student, a single IB exam can serve as the catalyst for large amounts of stress. Even worse is the prospect of two exams in one day due to unfavorable scheduling, but rarely will a student have to tackle three tests in a single day. This situation, however, befell a number of IB students yesterday after a power outage on May 4 caused the IB Geography Paper 1 to be rescheduled for yesterday morning.

“It was killer; my hand hurt,” senior Josue Torrico said. Torrico is an IB Diploma candidate who was forced to take IB Geography Papers 1 and 2 and IB Higher Level (HL) Mathematics Paper 3 yesterday after the cancellation of the first part of the geography exam last week.

Because the partial blackout led to unusual circumstances at testing locations around the school, IB mandated that both Papers 1 and 2 of the geography exam be completed before 12 p.m. yesterday. This meant that IB Geography students had to take a 90 minute exam at the start of the day before a 15 minute break leading into the 80 minute exam originally scheduled for the day.

Testing did not end there for Torrico, who continued the stressful day by studying for his HL math exam before returning for the test’s 12:30 p.m. call time. Torrico was not the only student put in this situation, however, as several other IB students were also forced to complete all three exams within a limited time frame.

“I was really stressed and I have a huge headache. My hand hurts a lot from writing all the time,” senior Jiyeong Park said after the completion of the math exam. “It was really hard [to prepare for all three tests] because it was so much material.”

The large amount of material to study in preparation was not the only inconvenience encountered by Park, who also felt rushed because of the quick turnaround between the morning and afternoon exams.

“We tried to study for math, so we didn’t really get any break,” she said.

Similarly, Torrico felt both unprepared and rushed over the course of the day.

“We were prepared for Paper 1 and 2 [of the HL Mathematics exam], but we weren’t really prepared for Paper 3,” he said. “We weren’t really allowed to get lunch.”

With the completion of both the IB Geography and IB Mathematics exams, IB testing is now in full swing and will continue for the next two weeks as students attempt to earn college credit and complete IB Diploma requirements with high test scores.