By Grace Zawadzki

Students begin to dread finals the very second a Powerschool notification with a negative grade streams across their lockscreen. Finals are the anxiety-triggering two hour exams that separate high school students from ending the year with a solid grade and spending summer vacation reflecting on how the questions could have been answered differently.  The finals review each individual classes’ core concepts of the year and the information taught.

Finals stress is the worst stress. As students we work all year to achieve a golden average of a 90 or greater, and if lucky enough a teacher will bless us allowing the exemption standard to be an 89.5 or greater.  Some  teachers will strictly not exempt students if our grade is even a 89.4! With the exemption standards so incredibly strict, students spend more time stressing over the number that appears on their Powerschool app than the work that is produced and the knowledge that is gained.

I understand where teachers around the nation are coming from in the sense that I think it is important for us to be able to display what we have learned throughout the year. However I do not believe “finals” are the best way for students to demonstrate their learning over the course of the year.

Finals should be eliminated due to the fact that they have an enormous impact on a student’s final grade for the year. A single test should not make or break one student’s grade. If students are continuously earning poor grades on their finals it could potentially lead to (over time) a hole in the student’s future. A test should simply be a test. Although teachers do prep the students for the exam, the exam is so long that the length of it often has an impact on the work the student is able to produce. If I personally am forced to take a test that is clearly very long in length and a lot of the information was taught several months prior, I will most likely grow impatient with the exam and produce whatever information I need to in order to complete the exam. It is likely the same will go for most students.

Throughout the year the teachers give several quizzes which are later accompanied by tests. Usually once a unit concludes, a test is given to show the teacher how much the student has learned and quizzes are given throughout the unit to make sure students are on track. Shouldn’t this be sufficient enough? In my opinion students are more likely to excel on a unit exam than an exam given after most of the information was taught and an exam twice the size.  Whether the student is taking a final exam or preferably a test, teachers are able to view how their students are doing academically yet one way benefits the student’s work habits more.

It is known that the week of finals is one of the most stressful weeks for students. It isn’t healthy or beneficial for students to be completely consumed by stress. Even if students do work hard, the stress can reflect on their final exam grade. When asked, a fellow WHS junior stated, “Exam week is really stressful and is physically and emotionally exhausting and the amount of anxiety makes me wonder if it is worth it.”  This shows the stress has become too much for students to the point where they are willing to throw in the towel!

In conclusion, finals should be abolished due to the fact that they overwhelm students and don’t always display the true amount a student may have learned over the course of the year.