BY SAVANNAH KEYSER
As finals week approaches, CCHS students are beginning to think about which finals they will take and which they will use an exemption for. These decisions can be hard when students were counting on not having to take finals for their AP classes. However, this is not the case.
Students have become upset at the fact that they have to use an exemption to not take a final for their AP classes. Many students didn’t even expect there would be final exams for APs, and it came as quite a shock to hear that they would have to use an exemption to be able to get out of it.
“Other years we’ve been told that the AP exam takes place of our final,” junior Johanna Packer said. “We should be spending our time prepping for the next class we are going to take rather than worry about another exam.”
The reason so many students are opposed to this is that they already took a big exam for these classes. Students at CCHS feel that because they already took AP exams for their classes, they should not have to participate in a final exam because these AP exams are essentially an equivalent to a final exam in the sense of rigor and material covered.
“The AP exam is a standardized, unbiased method of testing our cumulative knowledge on the subject,” junior Gaby Sumkin said. “To take an additional exam is meaningless.”
Understandably, it is important to make sure that all students are treated fairly and thus all classes should have finals, but for AP courses these finals should be treated differently. Many students aren’t even upset about the fact that there is a final in the first place, they are just bothered that they have to appear at school during finals week more than they had hoped. For this reason, AP final exams should be allowed to be given in class prior to finals week so that way students who were expecting not to show up do not have to.
This may seem like the AP students would be receiving special treatment, however it is justified by all of their hard work and ambition throughout the year during their rigorous AP courses.
Students have discussed with their teachers about how they feel this is an unfair situation and have received responses that are in agreement with both the students and the administration.
“The easiest way to do it seems to be automatically exempt them from the final,” Psychology teacher Sally McNeal said. “But then comes the issue with kids who have below a B or want to raise their grades.”
Teachers are able to see how both sides make a good argument and many have been able to come up with some sort of compromise. Many are giving final projects instead of a test which allows the students to showcase their cumulative knowledge of the course, while also not having to stress about another conventional exam.
In the long run, AP students have already taken a big exam for their courses and shouldn’t have to take another one. If there must be one, however, it should be relatively simple and the students should be able to take these exams before finals week so they can use their time to prepare for other exams.
Photo courtesy of College Board
