The New Year is almost here so how can a student celebrate? Does getting mentally prepared to pass or fail a final sound ideal? Of course it does, being a student during the first month of the New Year is lots of fun. A semester’s worth of hard work either making or breaking your final grade is worth the stress. And I’ve never actually heard someone say those things, I am being sarcastic, but if I was being honest I’ll say that worrying about passing a final is the worst part about a course coming to an end.
At some private and public schools, if a student has an ‘A’ average, they do not need to participate in the final test. That used to be the case in a lot of schools in the Greater Middlesex County, but it has recently changed. Every student in every class must take a final test, even if it’s for an elective. I took a survey of people on google forms and every voter said you should only have to take a final for certain electives, or you shouldn’t have to take it at all. Every voter with the exception of one, also agreed that if a student has an ‘A’ in a class, they have proved that they understand and excel in that subject so they should not have to take a final or midterm, period. The other voter said that if you have an ‘A’ in the class, it should also depend on which class it is whether a student needs to take the final or not.
I try my best at school. I spend a lot of time playing sports, and trying to maintain a social life at the same time. I usually get all of my work done, and I usually get very good grades. I have never gotten a ‘C’ or lower in all my four years studying at Colonia High School. I do not believe that the sacrifices I have made to get a project done, or to finish an essay is well represented by my final testing grades of the past. I don’t think that it is fair for a student to work hard enough to receive an ‘A’ average in a class, only for him/her to fail the final test.
The final exam can seriously affect your final grade. The grade you received on your final test accounts for twenty percent of the combination of your first and second marking period grades. Therefore, if you receive an ‘A’ in a math class both marking periods, then fail the final, you may received an overall grade of a ‘B’ or ‘C’ depending on how strong your A’s were.
In my opinion it is not fair. If a student has an ‘A’ in any class, they should not have to prove themselves any further with a final test grade. Electives are classes chosen by the student to acquire a more specific knowledge than a required graduating class. They are not classes that need to be taken in order to graduate, so no I don’t think that electives should have finals at all.
