For the second year in a row, finals are no harm. On June 7-9, 2022, finals will be held in RPS highschools. Due to COVID and many students being remote last year, finals could not lower student’s grades. Despite all students attending in-person now, finals this year are still “hold harmless,” meaning they can only raise students grades.

   “I think finals will stay harmless in future years,” said a senior who wished to remain anonymous. “I feel that they should stay this way.”

   Many people believe that students will see finals as unimportant because they don’t have to try at all if they’re happy with their grade. However, the effects of hold harmless finals can give students the needed boost for the next letter grade.

   “Having finals this way might get students better grades than what their progress is,” said Willem Yehling, freshman. “They might go to a college that they normally wouldn’t be able to get into.”

   Many others see harmless finals as a good thing because it removes a lot of stress that comes with finals, and they believe that many students will try their hardest to get a better grade.

   “It feels great to have finals this way,” said the anonymous senior. “As a senior, I’ve experienced a couple years of harmful finals and it sucks.”

   Freshmen coming into high school this year are seeing harmless finals as the standard form of finals testing. If this way of testing changes in future years, it may catch the class of 2025 off guard.

   “After COVID, I hope we can go back to the old form of learning,” said Yehling. “I’m conflicted though, with finals like this, my grade won’t reflect my progress exactly, but I’ll have better grades overall.”