GHS Changes its Exam Schedule

Just before winter break, students were informed that the exam schedule had been changed to an all-day schedule in which there are no longer any half days or any breaks. Instead, every day is treated as a normal school day due to the shortage of needed days within the school year. 

The exam scheduling was a last minute change that administrators had to make. “Holding full days of school on those days not only keeps us in compliance with the instructional minutes mandated by the Department of Public Instruction, it also maximizes our direct instructional time with students. And, at this point, this seemed more sensible than adding school days onto vacations or at the end of the year,” principal Steve Lodes said.

Many students have had a negative perspective due to not having any breaks and some students having multiple exams on the same day.

“I hate it so much,” freshman Emmamae Nadelhoffer said. “It’s really unorganized. I have tons of exams on Wednesday; it’s going to be very stressful.”

Seniors who have experienced the old exam schedule have negative opinions about the change too. “I do not like [the new schedule] because I think that taking the exams is already hard enough, and being able to have half days after exams is a nice thing to do so that we can have the rest of the day off,” senior Abby Wentz said. “I would rather have the old schedule.”

The old exam schedule is popular amongst other students as well, such as freshman Addie Patneaude. “We should have the exams spread out over the days with like half hour breaks in between or something like that,” she said.

Freshman Sophie Latus agrees. “The fun of exams is that you don’t have a full day and you get to go home for lunch,” she said.

Some classes have exams and others have just projects, but some have projects with exams. “Some of my classes don’t even have exams, it’s just projects. Having no exams in some classes and multiple [exams] over the course of multiple days is just confusing; I don’t like it,” senior Sophie Chase said.

Teachers have also had to adjust their plans with the change, causing some to assign just projects instead, but English teacher Kate Wagner thinks it’s good for kids to take exams. “Exams in high school provide the experience and time management skills with both studying and taking the test in the time allowed,” she said. “If students go on in school and don’t have practice taking exams, they would be at a disadvantage compared to their peers.”

Although many students don’t like the change, Lodes thinks it will be good for students.“This change will provide students with additional learning time to complete and master course content,” he said. “Teachers will schedule any final projects, tests, exams, or any other semester-end activities within our regular school days.”