As students are gearing up for first semester finals, some recent changes to how finals are done weigh heavy on the minds of students. This school year, there will be two considerable differences made to final exams: first semester finals will be taken before winter break, and certain classes will have finals worth more than 10% of students’ grades.
Following the unexpected cancellation of first semester finals last year due to several days of inclement weather, the decision to move finals before winter break makes a lot of sense to students and teachers alike. In regards to the date of finals being changed, junior Kaed Flores believes that it will have a positive impact on a lot of students.
“I think before it was a lot harder on people, since people didn’t want to study over break for finals,” Flores said. “So having them before break probably will raise a lot of final grades for a lot of people.”
Similarly drawing from her own experience, sophomore Tanvi Dukkipati is glad to see this change in policy.
“I think it’s good because last year I went on vacation and I don’t have time to study when I’m not home,” Dukkipati said. “So it makes it easier, having it done before break.”
But final exam dates aren’t the only difference in finals this year. In addition, certain final exams will end up being worth more than 10% of students’ grades. This change will be made based on what teachers across the district thought would make sense for the courses that they teach.
Senior Jack Tilton acknowledges the different possibilities that this change may bring for students.
“It’s probably a little more stressful,” Tilton said. “But it also increases [the] opportunity for people to raise their grade by a letter. If it was just 10%, it [would be] a lot less.”
Dukkipati has a different perspective on the increase of certain final weights.
“I think it’s kind of dumb because it kind of sets you up for failure,” Dukkipati said. “It [could] destroy your grade after you’ve worked so hard the entire semester to keep your grade up. If you’re trying to increase your grade, I feel like it can help, but usually you’re trying to keep it at the same level that you’re already at.”
With these new changes, it is likely that many students may have to change the way they go about preparing for finals this year. Tilton finds that he and his peers may have to change their course of action.
“I’ll probably take some classes a lot more seriously as I go towards finals to try and increase my grade,” Tilton said. “I feel like a lot of my [senior] peers [will] probably [either] pay attention to finals a lot more, or they’ll use a lot of their exemptions.”
In addition to changes of how students will have to approach finals, Dukkipati believes that there will be a change in student mindset as well.
“I think it’ll make us all really stressed and just very burnt out before winter break,” Dukkipati said. “I think it’ll kind of take away from being excited for break, and it’ll just make us stress about everything.”
In the end, Flores thinks these changes will cause people to view their grades differently now.
“I think it will make people feel stronger about their grades and how they end up by the end of the semester,” Flores said.
