The Students' Voice Since 1997
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THE the students‘ voice since 1997 MT HE I NDEPENDENUCKRAKERT J OHN F. K ENNEDY S CHOOL S T UDEN ts ‘ N EW S PAPER Volume XVII, Issue VI Friday, June 7, 2013 Circulation: 200 PAGE 1 THE Our MSA Experience MUCKRAKER All students in Germany know we had to take a more difficult exam and that when it comes to 10th grade, that is the reason for the lower grade. Speaks! there is a huge exam waiting for them According to the school administration in spring, the MSA (Mittlerer Schulab- it is unfair for us to take the standard schluss). The MSA consists of four parts: English MSA exam because we are better the group presentation, English, German at English than other German students. As the year draws to and Math. The 10th graders this year But shouldn’t our grades reflect our level an end and we finish our last took their last exams (German and Math) of capability? exams freedom, sun, and in April and are finally over with the Regardless of this however, the MSA. For those of you who are upcoming PLAN test is nothing much to worry about beach might be all we can’t 10th graders, and also younger students, if you are a native English speaker. The stop thinking about. What here are some of our opinions about this test consists of a reading comprehensi- year’s MSA and tips on how to succeed. on part, as well as a writing part, which approaches us next year is not For the English portion of the count for the English portion of the MSA. something we want to spend exam, John-F.-Kennedy students take There is also a science portion, which is our summer worrying about. a standardized test called the PLAN used for those D3 and D4 students in test towards the beginning of the year, lieu of their German grade because they However for many students, unlike students at other Berlin schools, won’t be taking the German MSA exam. preparing for the coming year who take a standard English MSA test In our opinion, the group presen- as issued by the Berlin government. We tation was the most interesting part of is a crucial step to success. take a more difficult test, because being the exam. In a group of 2-4 people, we We hope to help you tackle a German-American School, the students chose our own topic that we are intere- the coming year with a few at JFKS are better in English than the sted in and give a 20 to 40 minute long students in German schools. However, presentation (depending on how many warnings and pointers from we believe this to be unfair as we are people are in your group; 10 minutes our journalists. therefore more likely to get a worse per group member). We highly recom- grade on the English portion of the MSA. mend that you pick a topic which you are This means that if a prospective emplo- sincerely interested in and want to learn yer were to look at the MSA grades of a about. JFK student and see a lower grade on the English exam, they would not realize that Cheers, , continued on page 2 The Editors The poems of the the winners For all students who have heard of the Earth Day poetry contest numerous things about the AP are exclusively published in this system and don‘t know what to issue. Read the inspiring works believe, an experienced 11th of the talented students in our grader reveals what it is really school. like to be a Diploma student on page 4 on page 5 The S.C. has something exciting A fascinating MSA presentation news for us all once again.Make reveals the mystery about sure to read their newsletter in scizophrenia this issue of the Muckraker on page 6 on page 2 Volume XVII, Issue VI Friday, June 7, 2013 Circulation: 200 PAGE 2 JFKS LIFE continued from page 1 Staff Box Also make sure to verify that The German test consisted of there is enough information to be found one article about Bollywood in Ger- Founding Fathers: about your topic prior to your decision. many, one excerpt from a book about Mikolaj Bekasiak Our group topic was about the evolu- a man who likes old movies, a graphi- Seth Hepner tion of different ethnicities and how hu- cal representation of data relating Adam Nagorski mans have evolved to look so different. airports in London, and a writing part It was a fascinating topic. For example about Fast foods versus homemade we learned about why East Asians have foods. Everybody thought it was fairly Senior Advisor: thick, black hair, why Blacks generally easy, even those who have partner Sophia Hengelbrok have longer limbs, and why Caucasians tongue German. Hyerin Park have various hair colors. Although our The math exam was surpris- Lara Fenwick group started working rather very late, ingly also very easy. It was mostly we worked diligently and managed to just basic math, with a formula sheet Editors: get a good grade on our presentation. provided. As far as we can remember, This doesn’t mean it was easy. We still there was a problem on geometry, Julia Chrampanis recommend you start working on it at measuring the surface area of a roof, Lenny Leass least a month in advance, preferably a graph on exponential growth, basic far earlier, because procrastinating on algebra etc. We don’t know if the test Layout Editor: this huge presentation was very stress- next year will also be this easy, but Polina Andreeva ful. When it comes to the grade, in our as long as you understand the things opinion, it largely depends on which you learn in your math class and pre- Journalists: teachers you get. There are three pare well for the test, it won’t be a big teachers for each presentation and at problem. Chaeky Song the end they will ask you questions By and large we found the George Freyermuth relevant to the subject (or sometimes MSA to be not that big of deal; less Max Sherwood not so relevant...). If you get unlucky, of a difficulty than it was hyped-up to Matilde Borio some teachers can ask rather difficult be by our teachers, but more so than Clara Frick questions and thus bring down your what we were told by the 11th and Eleanor Kelly grade, or simply be stricter at grading 12th graders. Overall, as long as you Antonia Nihsen the presentations. prepare ahead of time and do not pro- Alina Albrecht The 10th graders took their crastinate (well, not too much), you’ll last part of the MSA exams, German be fine. and Math, in April. The general consen- sus this year is that both of the tests were actually pretty easy, easier even than the practice exams they had been Chaeky Song and George Fryermuth studying with. The Truth about Scizophrenia As confusing as being a teen- Possible symptoms of a schizo- THE MUCKRAKER is an independent ager can be, what you see, hear and phrenic include hallucinations and de- newspaper. The opinions expressed otherwise experience has an unwaver- lusions like hearing voices or seeing here in no way reflect those of ing certainty to it. Yet what if that gets people who aren’t there, having a dis- the administration of the John F. undermined and confusing? The world organized daily routine, and paranoia. Kennedy School. of a schizophrenic differentiates so For our MSA presentation we much from ours, it is nearly impossi- prepared a survey asking people at ble to even imagine what it would feel our school (ages 12 through 18) if like to suddenly hear a voices in your How to join they knew what schizophrenia was. the Muckraker Staff head, whose presence is unknown to Over 90% said they had heard of it others and doesn’t make any sense and 90% of those thought people with 1. Come to our weekly or abruptly have a visual conception, schizophrenia could live normal lives meetings in the 20-minute- bordering the line between reality and depending on the severity and with break on Tuesdays in B214 delusions. enough support. What’s important to 2. Send in your articles to Schizophrenia is a severe understand is that it IS in fact possible [email protected] and highly occurring mental disorder to live a relatively normal and healthy 3. Drop a note in our which affects 1% of the world’s popu- life even if you are suffering from such mailbox or approach us lation, and still remains somewhat of a horrible disorder. randomly in the hallways a mystery today. It is a disorder that During our research, we went involves abnormalities in the brain to a “self-help group” or “group-thera- which will cause a patient to have a py” where patients shared their expe- hard time connecting thoughts, emo- riences about schizophrenia. tions and observations. A person will experience an internal chaos going on inside of their heads showing signs of continued on page 3 peculiar social behaviors. Volume XVII, Issue VI Friday,June 7, 2013 Circulation: 200 PAGE 3 JFKS LIFE JFKS LIFE continued from page 2 It was great to see how almost all of them had learned to As overlapping schizophrenia is to many other deal with it and had accepted the fact that they were suf- mental disorders, as unclear or scary our findings of it fering from such a disorder.