Flippin’ out over finals
By Lizzy Petersen
Photo of James Barrett and Braylon Stafford taken by Lizzy Petersen
Finals are quite possibly the most nerve-wracking part of the school year. Many high schools give them at the end of the semester to test students' retention of the topics taught to them throughout the year. For many students, this can make or break their grade. They must work to reach into the back of their brain and grab knowledge they have not gone over in months.
Many students at Owasso High School have found that finals are seemingly useless.
Junior Jacelyn McDoulett expresses her aversion to finals by saying, “...finals are a waste of time that add unneeded stress to students.”
She even mentions how students take cumulative exams many times during the year testing their knowledge of subjects they spent weeks to months learning only to be retested at the end of the year when their grades and mental health are at stake.
Owasso has the tradition that if attending students keep a grade average above 85% with less than nine absences, students may be exempt from their spring finals. This practice appears to be contradictory; having mandatory tests in the winter, only to be exempted in the spring.
It seems that students are not only struggling with finals, but so are teachers. Plenty of teachers at Owasso have different variations of what they give for finals. The teachers that have become exhausted throughout the semester typically give a long multiple-choice exam that can be run through a scantron machine so that they may enjoy their break early without giving school a second thought. Some teachers have veered away from the path of standardized tests and began giving more creative alternatives. Typically teachers of electives give their students creative projects where they display what they have learned that semester in a more artistic manner.
Junior Ellie Heaps sides with the creative route rather than stressful test taking, saying, “...tests are a poor way to judge a student’s knowledge… projects are more beneficial, and show the parts students fully grasped.”
Students continue to express their frustration over finals yearly, yet teachers continue to ignore their pleas. Students are given reviews with up to hundreds of questions on them in each class to cram before their big test. If students were given more leeway and grace with a final project rather than a test they can focus better, have less stress and more fun.
Not only do students shine by showing their creativity through projects, but they are able to highlight what they retained individually from the semester. Project-based finals have many benefits for students that struggle to take standardized tests. Teachers are also given a break from reading the same mind-numbing answers all day every day that a standardized test would provide.