For the majority of high schools the students have the option to, if they meet requirements, can exempt their fall semester exams. Our school has decided to take that option away. By “forcing” the students to take a final in every class, the students are learn a different kind of work ethic that has the potential to be useful in life.

   The reasons for changing the policy are unknown and quite frankly irrelevant. Students should have to take all of their finals to test their knowledge in the class. Even though a teacher may not want to have to make a written test, there are other ways of testing whether or not the student in sufficient in what they know. Just like an exit level test, students should be required to prove their intelligence to be able to gain credit for the class.

Students that attend either a university or even a community college do not have the option of exempting exams. Ready or not, every student has to take the final. Taking the option away in high school prepares the students that are interested in a higher education for the world of testing they will enter at any institution.

    There is a portion of the school who disagree with taking away exemptions. They say that it isn’t fair for the students that are not taking college level courses to have to pretend that high school is college. They say that high school levels courses should have the option to act as so by rewarding the students that meet requirements with the chance to exempt. I get where they are coming from. However, it isn’t just the students that take college level classes that go on to college. Students that take high school level classes still have the opportunity to further their education at an institution and therefore need to be prepared for college exams.

  All in all, the new policy is fair even though the change may seem unnecessary. The learned work ethic from studying for and taking tests will benefit students in the future. To all students: keep your chin up because next semester the policy is different again, and this time it includes exemptions.