The Final Obstacle

Seniors are the only class of students to experience a full year of both midterms and finals, as juniors have only taken midterms and underclassmen are completely new to the cumulative exam experience. Freshman Marisa Mariano (9-3) describes her experience: “I feel like my whole grade in general is kind of flustered and doesn’t really know what to expect just because we’ve never had finals. There hasn’t been much communication about what that looks like for us. Especially because there haven’t been midterms, there hasn’t been that kind of barometer to see what it will be like.”

Deciding not to have midterms was a decision that ultimately came down to consistency. “We weren't going to return midterms because the beginning of the year had less consistency…we weren't sure about the consistency of days and instruction so it didn't feel right at that time to do a cumulative test which is really what a semester exam, a midterm or a final is,” explains Mr. Gilken. “There is no way we could have had effective, responsible, authentic midterms with the way Omicron came back in January, we started getting sick right before winter break, and teachers went into quarantine. [Our school experience] was so uneven that midterms were just unreasonable,” adds Dr. Payne. So why are finals back? “While we haven’t come all the way back yet, I still feel like we need to have closure to the school year,” Payne responds.

While finals at Masterman have typically always been a paper and pencil test, there are some exceptions. For instance, sophomores who opt to create a project for National History Day (NHD) are exempt from their African American History final. Their project is graded instead. “Can finals look different? Of course they can,” says Dr. Payne. “There are definitely high school environments where this sort of paper pencil test thing has never been a consideration.” The idea of changing the way finals work raises many questions. Would it be one per subject or multidisciplinary? Would a paper and pencil final still be an option? Projects of this magnitude, that could compare to NHD projects take a long time, how would that change the timeline of finals? Do we have enough teachers to supervise this process? Would this new program be similar to senior projects where students leave school to work at internships? All of these questions require thought and planning as well as input from students and teachers to create any sort of new program. But it has been thought about. Dr. Payne explains, “I’d like to think that students would rather work on something that they feel passionate about, produce it and display it than huddle up a couple of nights in a row to process and do a test.”

In the build up to finals, students may wonder what purpose they serve. “I hope what the finals provide is some insight to the work that is being done,” says Dr. Payne. While teachers may glean insight from them, students typically equate finals with stress and anxiety. “Any sort of assessment and any time you're being judged, ranked, or scored, can trigger anxiety, episodes of self-reflection, self-doubt: ‘Am I ready? What should I do? Did I pay attention?’ My hope is that there is enough support and relationships built that we do not let those things overwhelm us,” continues Dr. Payne. Mental health has been discussed more since returning from online school, and this conversation is all the more prevalent during finals season. To combat stress and anxiety, students and teachers alike can provide advice for how to navigate this stressful time. “It's all about time management. It's all about looking at your schedule of final exams and saying, ‘what do I have, what do I think is going to be the hardest…’ My advice would be to find out which ones are going to be content heavy, which are going to be more skills based and create a schedule based on that,” says Mr. Gilken. “It was really helpful to make time with friends to go through the material in a structured way and try to plan out your study schedule,” adds Sophie Gala. “I know it's easier said than done, but what I've been telling everybody is don’t stress. If you are feeling nervous or unprepared it is always best to have a conversation with your teacher prior to the exam to cover that. Maybe the teacher can provide some insight that allows you to relax a little bit…Communication between students and teachers is the key.” For math finals, which cover a lot of material, Mr. Tannen advises “taking the time yourself to write out a study guide by hand, [as] putting it into writing for me often helps me and forces me to think about what I’m writing and make sense of it as I’m going.”

However, students may be feeling in the lead up to their final exams, they should know that the rest of the student body is going through the same thing. There may be a universal increase of stress in the halls of Masterman at the moment, but soon there will be a plethora of end of the year activities for students to enjoy. With the right resources and study tactics, finals can be manageable, and they will be over soon enough. Good luck to everyone!