Online Journal Project--#6

   Now that we are ending the school year, it is time to start studying for finals. The other day, I was talking to some of my friends who go to another school in Fulton County. They excitedly told me that they can exempt their finals this year. Let's just say I'm a little jealous. The only criteria is that you have to have above an 80. It seems like practically the whole school should be able to exempt! So my question is: why, at Chattahoochee, do we have to wait until second semester of senior year to exempt finals?
  Finals week is tiring and stressful seeing that we have tests for every subject all within 3 days of each other. Also, finals can practically make or break your grade in a class. If you are borderline for a certain grade, the final can tip you way to one side or to the other. Students who have a solid grade that they are happy with in the class should not have to go through this stressful week. The finals are sometimes pointless, too. If a student is fantastic in a certain class and has never made below a 95 on any assignment, then there is really no reason for them to be taking a final. It most likely wouldn't change their grade at all anyway. For those people who insist on taking a final, they should be allowed to take it. However, the students who feel that they don't need to take the final and are happy with their grades, should not be forced to take it.
    The point of a final is to assess the students knowledge of the coursework for the semester. Is it not possible, then, to assess the student's work throughout the semester from their grades? Finals should not be necessary for all students, no matter what age. If a grade is above average, then students should have the choice of whether or not they would like to take the final. Teachers may believe that finals help a student's chances of improving their grade. This is not true for most students, however, because there will be a correlation between how the student has done all year and how they do on the final. If the student hasn't done well all year, there is practically no chance that they will be able to significantly increase their grade just from the final. The ability to exempt finals would be an ultimate stress-reliever for many students and would give students more of a responsibility to their grades.