Opinion

How to Make Seniors’ Lives Easier

Marissa Howell
May 18, 2017

As the school year slowly winds to a close, everyone prepares for their final exams, and the thought of doing more than we need to to graduate is appalling. Seniors should be able to have exemptions from all exams.

The week before graduation is the senior exam week. Many Seniors are exempt from exams if they hold a B average or higher for the year in a class. This beautiful loophole is enough to encourage Seniors to keep coming to school for the remainder of the year.

This lovely loophole does have a very annoying flaw in it, however. Semester classes require you to take the final, regardless of grade or grade level. Semester classes have two exams; the first deems if you pass to the next section, and the second determines if you pass the class for the year.

Many teachers believe that semester exams are needed regardless of grade level to ensure that the student fully grasps the topic.

But this is unfair, especially to Seniors who need the credit to graduate and who, more often than not, have to endure double jeopardy. They should treat semester classes the same as they would year long classes.

If I, as a Senior, can be exempt from my English exam (a class needed to graduate) but not my Foods exam, there is a serious problem.

It’s just silly that requirement classes offer the exemption, but not semester classes.

Semester classes should have to follow the same guidelines as regular classes. If your grade averages a B or higher, especially for seniors, then you shouldn’t have to take an exam for that class at all.

This is, unless you are switching to a different class, such as Financial Management to Economics or vice versa. Those are two separate semester courses; thus they should have an exam.

Exams are the final drag to the end of both the school year and the end of the semesters. For Seniors, they are borderline blocking the light to the end of the tunnel.

Also, as a way to implement a better policy to prevent skipping or missing any school, there could be a raffle for every grade level where one person wins and doesn’t have to take their exams at all, automatic exam passing, with the exception of Econ and Financial Management.

They could take all the days of school, and that’s how many times your name goes into the drawing. And then with every class you miss, or just any school day in general, your name comes out one time.

This will encourage students to come to school and (let’s face it) stay here as well, all while potentially rewarding those who did show up all the days they were supposed to.

Or why not simply get rid of exams altogether? I wonder what the world would be like if Seniors didn’t have to take exams. Would the school systems as we know it collapse completely? Or would life carry on as normal with little to no hiccups?

Below are the stories featured in the May 19 Issue of The Roaring Gazette.

What Administration Learned from the Test Lunches by Kayla Smith

U.S. News: Tallwood 39th Best High School in Virginia by Kayla Smith

Students Bring Passion for Fashion to Tallwood Show by Ariana Hernandez

Yearbooks to Arrive in Early June by Elena Day

Junior Fun Night Lives up to its Name by Cassidy O’Neal

Meet Two Lions: Mrs. Lizan and Mrs. Bankes by Sydney McKissick

Mr. Justin Goldstine: Tallwood’s Fixer by Ophelia Reid

Lions Football Begin Off-Season by Richard Ruffin

Tallwood High School Sports Update by Tyler Dennis

Dress Code Should be Fairly Administered by Amari McCoy

How to Make Seniors’ Lives Easier by Marissa Howell