As the end of the school year comes closer, students usually have to take finals. The pandemic caused finals last year to be dropped as well as midterms this year. Principal Rick Barnes has determined students will not have finals this year. 

Math teacher Tammy Leonard believes in taking final exams as a way to see what a student has learned in the past year. However, with the current situation of the pandemic, schools might be a little more lenient with the workload at the end of the year. “If we were going to take time at the end of the year and not do school as much, then I don’t prefer giving up finals because I’d rather be engaged in the academics,” said Leonard. Many students are stressed this year trying to keep up with their academics during the pandemic. “It is tough this year. I know I feel behind in all my classes so I would rather use my time teaching than to be reviewing and testing,” said Leonard. 

If finals had come up this year, it would have been difficult to test remote and in school students fairly while keeping in mind COVID-19 precautions. Remote testing can have its pros and cons. “It is hard to do a test at home with the same level of seriousness as you don’t see it as a test and more of an in class assignment,” said Amrei Pfeiffer ‘23. However, it would not be fair to in-person students if remote students don’t get as numerous precautionary measures taken. Cheating would also have been another con in remote testing. “I feel like it is pretty easy to cheat on anything as an at home student, meaning finals would be no different. But there’s ways that even remote students could come into the building although that would be a hazard with covid,” said Abby Haskel ‘23.

Teachers would have to write tests for all the students no matter if they are remote or in-school. “It is very hard to write tests that are truly of equal difficulty level and have different questions. It would be difficult for teachers to come up with four fair tests. Writing one fair final is hard but writing four fair finals would be even harder,” said Leonard. Test prep would also be another factor to take into consideration. Teachers would have to help in person and remote students to study for this big final test which is worth 10% percent of students’ grades. “The teacher should prepare the remote kids as much as the in school kids for the test so it is fair,” said Pfeiffer. 

For the second year in a row, final tests have been cancelled because of the pandemic. On a good note, it gives students an opportunity to reduce their stress levels at the end of the year and go on to summer vacation.