Finals are being extinguished everywhere
Having finals is one thing that weighs on every student at the end of each semester. The stress, the dread of possible failure, and the desperate hope to pass. All RPS205 high schools have been without finals for a few years now, which has had a few different effects on students.
On one hand, not having finals has lifted a lot of stress off of students’ shoulders, allowing them to relax and focus better on their education leading up to finals. Alleviating this pressure also allows students to expand their social lives during the weeks leading up to finals, without having to study rigorously in preparation for the long week of testing. In this way, getting rid of finals was a great choice.
On the other hand, though, college does no such thing. Finals are often the largest part of your grade, affecting whether you pass or fail the class regardless of the work you put in beforehand. So, in this regard, finals in high school were a good thing. They were a way to prepare students for the stress they may face if they choose to go to college, and it offers eight chances in four years for students to learn how to manage that stress and become a master final taker.
While studying for finals can be a huge inconvenience, actually taking them is one of the best things for preparing students for college, especially for students with test-taking anxiety. Finals expose students to that test-taking environment that is hard to get anywhere else. Being thrown into a testing room in college with no idea what it will feel like is not ideal. Finals are an excellent way to prepare for that. They give students a feel of what it will be like taking finals in college, and what it will feel like for their grades to be so heavily impacted by them.
While finals can be very weight-bearing in high school, they are essential for success in college.