Should Final Exams Be Required for All Students?

Jacob VanOoyen, Staff Writer, Journalism I

Final exams are a test at the end of each semester course to test the knowledge of the entire class’s material.

But are they really necessary for people who are passing the class with an A? 

I think final exams should not be required for all students in the class to take. If a student has a grade of A and above, they shouldn’t take the exam, if a student has anything between a B and A-, they can choose whether they want to take the exam or not, and anything below B means the student must take the exam.

 This will not only take the stress off students but also encourage them to do better in school. If I knew that if I could finish with an A and not take the exam, I would work harder. 

Of course, there are many diifferent perspectives on finals.

There is the teachers’ perspective that this way they can see what students have learned in the long term, not just what was remembered for a chapter test and then forgotten.

There is the student’s perspective that it is one last test to drop your grade because your grade rarely ever goes up even if you get 100% on the final.

Another perspective is from an administrative perspective that these finals are preparing us for college and that it looks good that we are taking them.

With all of these sides, they all do have one thing in common, which is the students, but in different ways. 

If you look at the amount of stress and anxiety of such young students during these times, it is just very unhealthy.

“During final exam days I only get about 10 hours of sleep total which is about three  hours a night because of studying and getting prepared for the next day,” said a current junior at NDA.

I think final exams should be looked at because I feel as though they are very old-fashioned and out of date. 

We want to be an innovative school with modern strategies, not ones that have been in place since Jesus walked the planet.