Everybody hates finals, and as seniors with plenty of experience with finals, we acknowledge that students aren’t the only ones who struggle with the season of finals. The difference in the final season for teachers and students varies based on what stresses them out and how they go about managing their midterms.
Senior Joey Diaz told The Enochs Eagle Eye, “I think they’re dumb and not very rad”. Although that quote is rather humorous, other students we spoke to seem to have felt the same way as Mr. Diaz. One student went on to say, “I think they’re dumb, actually they’re okay. I don’t hate them, I just wish we didn’t have to do them, but I do [it] regardless.” Many students expressed that despite the stress and pressure finals put on them, they proceed through them anyways.
While the majority of students stated that their scores are the lead factor in their stress, teachers expressed that students’ scores do not affect their feelings on the content and formatting of the final. Mrs. McKinney, teacher of Environmental Science and a teacher for the Forensic Biotech Academy, told The Eagle Eye the process with which she creates the finals for her students. “I want it to be something that is challenging for the students, but I also don’t want it to be boring or something that is going to make them miserable or super stressed out. So, finding the balance between doing something that’s rigorous and challenging and shows me what they’ve learned throughout the semester while at the same time making it something that they’re not going to hate doing and something that isn’t going to leave them crying in their bedroom at night is probably the most challenging part in creating a final exam.” In many teachers’ cases, the stress from grading the finals outweighs the concern about students’ grades.
Mrs. McKinney stated, “The final that I do is a project-based final, so every student is turning in a set of slides and there [are] a lot of things I expect to see on each slide. It probably takes around 15 total hours to grade my finals”. A teacher’s perspective of finals is not as easy as we think it to be. It is evident that teachers spend hours grading their finals; maybe even more than the amount of hours students spend studying.
When asked how he felt about finals, senior Jorge Diaz went on to say, “I think the way teachers prepare the students is stupid. Most teachers make it like 15% of your grade but they only give you a week to study.” And while many teachers would argue that this is incorrect, Mr. Bankson, Algebra, Geometry, and Mathematics for the Trades teacher, expresses his concern for the stress that finals put students through, “Finals week is a major stressor for a lot of students. The stress itself can actually lower their performance on the final”. His teaching methods also reflect the same message. Bankson goes on to say, “Finals are unnecessary. In my class, if students have an A going into the end of the semester, they have completed everything that I’ve asked them to do the first time and should not have to stress about a big test that can break their grade. Students that would like to retake an old test or turn in some late work to raise their grade have the opportunity to do so.” It is an obvious statement that if a student has done as well as they should have for the semester, one test should not bring down their grades by a whole letter.
It is clear to see that the season of finals is a time of heightened anxiety and debilitating exhaustion for both teachers and students. Because of this, we encourage the people of Enochs High School to be not only considerate but supportive of those around them this finals season. Signing off, your Features Editors Emma and Keira, good luck on finals, Eagles!
