Finals week is always a stressful time for students at Arrowhead High School. With the semester coming to a close at 11:00 am next Thursday, students are rushing to make up late assignments and preparing for the tests that will be worth 15-20% of their grade. Many students have been preparing since the beginning of this week, and will continue through the weekend and into next week.

For seniors, their performance on the semester exams may not be the most important with college acceptances already in the bag. However, for several seniors as well as all of the junior class, these grades can weight on their academic future.

With each final exam counting for up to 20% of their final semester grade, it has the chance to both raise grades as well as lower them. College bound juniors will submit their semester grades  to colleges next fall, however, some seniors who have been waitlisted at their college of choice may be required to submit them as soon as possible.

Junior Thomas Newman says, “I plan to continue on to college after senior year, and to do so I really need to stay focused and get the best grade I can. A big part of that is finishing the semester off right, with high exam grades.”

In order to fulfil these goals of scoring high on their exams. Many students have already started preparing for next week’s testing. A poll of juniors revealed that 7 out of 10 students have already put in some review time. Comparing this to the poll of seniors, who only 5 out of 10 have begun preparing, it is easy to see a correlation between the importance of these grades and the preparation put into them.

Senior Jack Dambeck says, “I plan to begin studying this weekend, focusing on my classes in the order that I will be tested on.”

Senior John Widish says, “I have already started reviewing some of the things we learned earlier in the year.”

There are many ways students are preparing. However, some teachers have created mandatory review packets. This practice of forced review is controversial amongst some of the students. With some saying that it is just part of the class, and others saying it shouldn’t be required to study for tests.

Dambeck says, “I think studying should be left up to the student, and forcing them to fill out these massive review packets only constricts their timeline leading up to finals. It is bad enough with just one of these assignments, imagine having multiple teachers assign them.”

Dambeck says his studying plans include, “reviewing old test and quizzes, while using flash cards whenever possible.”

Finals take place next week Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There are three tests per day and the schedule can be found at ArrowheadSchools.org