February isn’t just the month of love. It is also that time of the school year where Bellarmine students sign up for their next year’s classes. Normally, registration for the classes would just include writing down what you would like to take on an issued form and discussing it with your CP teacher. However, junior year is different. Not only do you have the stresses of AP classes, SAT and ACT testing, and college visits but juniors also have to endure Arena scheduling.

This is common in a lot of colleges. As such, this acts as a way to prepare juniors for when they have to sign up for classes in college. Arena scheduling is as follows: you draw a number that depicts where you are supposed to stand within your CP. On the actual day of the arena scheduling, all the juniors convene into the booster gym. There, you have three sets of tables representing the sections of English, Social Studies, and Religion. You are grouped with your CP along the walls of the gym. The session is divided into rounds. Based off of your CP, this depends on if you go to one of the three stations in that round.

The scene can only be compared to the Hunger games in their chaotic nature, as kids rush to each of the stations to get first in line so they can get the classes that they want. That’s the catch of arena scheduling: there are only a limited number of spots for the elective classes in the English, Social Studies, and Religion fields.

This causes a lot of mixed feelings about this type of scheduling. Some have positive outlooks on it. Senior Johnathon Yu said, “When you get the class you wanted, you feel better about yourself”. Senior Sanaya Nordine added, “You feel like the king of the world”.

However, others have more negative feelings on the subject. Senior Bryanna says “It sucks because people who have been working for years for AP and Honors courses might not get them, unlike others who haven’t worked that hard yet they get the class”.

In short, the arena scheduling provides both practice for college as well as unnecessary stress that is added on to the already overwhelming list that is junior year. Nordine also advises juniors reading this, “Wear protective gear. You get pushed and shoved a lot”.