Since the second semester of the 2019-2020 school year, PVHS has been on a break from requiring students to participate in class finals. However, the 2021-2022 school year has finally brought finals back.
The sophomore class of 2026 is now experiencing finals for the first time during their high school experience. Additionally, the senior class of 2022 is struggling to remember how to manage their finals after taking an almost three-year break from them. Thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, even teachers have been grateful for the break from finals.
The final test of the semester typically consists of a multiple choice or problem solving test lasting two hours long. Depending on the specific class, however, this could be affected by duration of the test, type of test or even no test. For example, language classes such as French and Spanish consist of a verb conjugation final starting before the official final test days of PVHS start. Paired with the actual test date where the final exam may cover vocabulary, tense practice, history and more, the workload for a class’s final exam varies considerably.
After a student’s freshman year, most students have found that the difference in teaching, homework, grading and overall difficulty increases significantly as they progress through high school. For a sophomore taking finals for the first time as well as the increase in difficulty for classes, students can only sympathize with one another for their stress load.
“Finals have been a stressful but also comforting experience to know that schools are returning to somewhat normal. I don’t like finals and they’re definitely different from the normal tests of high school. I wish there was more support from teachers or more resources to go to for studying,” said sophomore Jaydon Kachapilly.
Adding to the stress of finals comes the scheduling and confusing timeline between test days. Although the exams start on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, and last until Jan. 15, exams for students may start on Monday that week.
PV provides students with a finals schedule the week prior to finals, students are unable to choose which test they take on a certain day. Hypothetically, a student could have three finals on the first day, no finals on the second day and three finals on the third day. Students have zero control over their schedule. Realistically this makes sense; however, for a student doing finals for the first time or even after years of participating in them, the stress load is more than great.
Prioritizing which classes deserve more attention before the test days start is one tool most students use in order to perform well on their semester final grades. As different classes weigh the quarters and final exam differently, it can once again be confusing to figure out which class needs the most attention to get the desired grade for the semester. Many students use a final semester grade calculator in order to determine the score they need to receive on the final exam to produce a certain grade. Here, a student may put in their quarter grades as well as the weight per quarter and of the final and play around with what scores they can receive on the final to get a specific grade.
While the semester grade calculator can be very helpful and a reliable resource for students to use before finals, unless a student knows about the tool, many will go into test days blindly.
Finals are a small part of most people’s high school experiences. Final exams themselves are not the problem, it is the lack of preparation provided for the current generation of students. Overall, all students will eventually figure out how to prepare for a big exam, and for some, it may be the last final exams they take. The biggest piece of advice for stressed and anxious students is to lean on each other. Your peers are going through exactly the same thing you are.
