by Courtney Smith | staff writer

As the excitement of the upcoming holidays grows, so does the anxiety that comes with final exams. Exemption forms and study guides have been cluttering backpacks for nearly a month, but there’s more to success than just having a study guide. Exam time requires precise scheduling and student involvement, too.

“Every teacher on campus has to give some sort of an exam. An exam can be all different types of things,” assistant principal Julie Shore said. “For foreign language there are four different components. So it just depends. It can be a presentation, a talk with the teacher; but there has to be an exam.”

Although exams vary from teacher to teacher, the importance of studying does not. Most test reviews are given many weeks prior to the exam, some even at the beginning of the nine weeks.

“[Students should] get on as quickly as they can with their study guides. Anything they have questions on, circle it and go talk to the teacher so they can get clarification before the test,” Shore said.

To help students prepare, on exam days (Dec. 15th-18th) there are study hall times provided alongside their lunch times.

“We really want students to do well on their exams and giving them 45 minutes for lunch and 45 minutes to really sit down and either collaborate with their peers or work with the teacher to study before they have to go take that exam,” Shore said. “We feel like we prepare them better than to be in a loud cafeteria.”

A misconception some students have is that once they exempt an exam, they can skip that day. However, this is not always the case.

“Students can’t skip the test day if it puts them over on their absences. Then once we get back from the break they would have to take the exam. If a student has a 95 and zero absences, they can skip that day if they want because it doesn’t affect their exemption,” Shore said.