As the calendar turns over into December, it is becoming more obvious around JHS that final exams are quickly approaching. Students around the school are buying caffeine in anticipation of all-nighters to come. Most importantly, though, students are trying to figure out what subjects they want to use for their exam exemptions.
As a senior getting ready to graduate from JHS in May, I do not think that offering exam exemptions to high school children is a good idea. Sure, I have always tried to be one of the first in line to exempt my hardest final, and my GPA over the past three years has been a reflection of that. I fully realize that my GPA probably would not be the same if I had been forced to take all of those math and science finals that I jumped at the opportunity to exempt. Three years ago I would have said that exam exemptions were the best thing at JHS. Now, I do not quite agree.
I’ll admit that the main reason I have stayed on Red Level consistently since my freshman year is because I wanted the exam exemptions that came with it. The opportunity to get out of a trigonometry final or a chemistry final was well worth working harder to stay on Red Level. Even now, if I was able to exempt out of my dual-credit calculus final, I would. Sadly, though, this is the first time I’ve been faced with a final that I have to take.
When I was a freshman, the importance of finals never really registered with me. They just felt like a ridiculous set of exams that our teachers made us take once a semester to torture us and kill our grade.
Now, as a senior who can see college looming on the horizon, the option to exempt out of finals seems to go against everything that a high school stands to do. The main goal of high school teachers is to prepare their students for life after high school, whether that means entering the work force or going to college.
Some JHS teachers are also in agreement that giving high school students exam exemptions could prove to be bad for the students in the long run. “Exam exemptions are the biggest incentive for the Crimson Pride program,” said Mrs. Genetin, teacher of the senior AP English class, “but it is possible for a student, who receives Crimson every term for all four years, to exempt 24 exams by senior year. Consequently, a student could enter college never having taken a math or English final.” As a senior going into college next year, I personally know that there are some students in the senior class that will enter college next fall never having taken an English or math final. Not only is it possible, but it happens much more often than some people realize.
From a student’s perspective, Genetin’s concerns are fair. Looking back now, I wish that I would have taken more of my difficult finals, in math especially, than I did. Some seniors, myself included, are in the process of studying for a calculus final that we cannot exempt because it is a dual credit class through Lincoln Land Community College.
Three years ago, I wish someone would have been there to explain to me the importance of taking final exams. I know for a fact that I have exempted exams in the past that I simply did not want to study for. Even if I would have taken some of my difficult exams that dropped my GPA by a little bit, I think I would have been even more prepared for college than I am now. Studying more in the short term would have been worth more in the long term.
Freshmen, think carefully about what exams you want to take. Don’t exempt an exam that you know you can do well on just because you don’t want to study for it.