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Finals have a special schedule for a reason

posted Dec 15, 2014, 11:32 AM by Unknown user

    What is the point of having a finals schedule with the opportunity to opt out if the teachers give the finals a week before official final dates anyway? There are some teachers who like to give finals to see how well the students have done throughout the semester. Some students, however, don’t want to take the harder finals. Students work hard to get as many incentives as they can just to get out of the finals they don’t want to take.

“I like to give finals to see how much the students learn,” Spanish teacher Kirby Kenny said. “The students take pretests in the beginning of the year, and I compare them with the final. My finals don’t usually hurt the student’s grades.”

Although she makes a valid point, I see why students get upset when they want to get out of a final in a tough class. Being on a border line A or B grade can make a difference in a student’s semester GPA. If students have the option to get out of that final and keep the A, most students would. If the students can’t get out of that final, then their GPA may fall, or they may stress out so much that they bomb the final.

College classes make you take the final, so there is no choice in opting out.  This makes a lot of sense because the class is for college credit, and when you get into college you can’t opt out of the finals. However, high school is different, and if the teachers are going to make us take the finals there is no point in the incentive program. Therefore, teachers should give the finals on the date they’re scheduled instead of a week early.
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