Tests: the bane of every student’s high school existence. Frantically shuffling papers and cramming last minute facts, students prepare to take their tests. But some students do a little more, whispering small prayers or tucking their hair back with lucky hairclips. These students perform little rituals or wear lucky charms to get ready to take the test.

Sophomore Kevin Cho: “On test days I usually use a certain type of pencil that my parents gave me a while back, and I’ve done pretty [well] on tests [with it]. I wear a wristband on test days for good luck.”            

Senior Sabrina Tanabe: “Junior year before a test, I’d always have my little hairclip [with me].  It didn’t really help me necessarily, it’s just like the feeling of having it there…that comforted me.”
Freshman Coby Bowman: “I drink Smartwater before every test, because it makes me smart, and it’s funny.”       

Sophomore Kavin Sivakumar: “The night before a test, especially if it’s a math or science test, I usually take an omega 3 pill before, because I think it makes me feel smarter. I don’t know if I do better or not…[but] I read that [the omega 3 pills] help you. Sometimes I like to chew gum so that the blood flows through my head…and… [it] starts the thinking process… I’ve seen research that proves that.”

Sophomore Natalia Osorio: Before every test I wear my favorite t-shirt because I feel like it’s lucky… Especially for [chemistry] tests I wear this chemistry t-shirt where it says sarcasm on it and it says the atomic mass, so I don’t know, sometime it might come in [handy].”

Senior Vasu Gupta:  “One of the seniors last year said [that] before a test [he would] wake up early in the morning and go for a quick run… [then] what he’d do is whatever the test was, he’d do a couple practice problems just to get [his] mind going… So, I started doing that and there might not be a correlation between them, but I just think I’ve been doing better on tests ever since I’ve started doing that.           Reporting by Priya Reddy and Vivian Chiang.