<p>Seniors here are exempt from midterms as long as they have an A average, they have 6 or less absences during the semester (including excused absences like college visits) and no disciplinary action on their record. For finals, anyone who is taking an AP test is exempt from a final, plus the same senior privilege for midterms is applied as well.</p>
<p>I think it’s a great carrot to keep kids interested in a) keeping grades up and b) attending school. Graduation is before Memorial Day, so after AP tests there’s only a week left anyway.</p>
<p>At my school we didn’t have to take the 2 1/2 hour finals after the end of the semester because we got out a few weeks early, but there was nothing stopping a teacher from giving a “big test” before seniors got out.</p>
<p>Same at my high school (but 20%) but what I mean to say is that there was nothing stopping them from giving a test worth 50% of the quarter’s grade of cumulative material from the year.</p>
<p>Oh our kids would love to avoid midterms, which are 20% of your first semester grade, each quarter being 40%. It can bump or drop any class an entire letter grade very easily if you don’t do well on a single test. If you don’t get an A first semester it’s mathematically impossible to get an A for the year…you’re shot.</p>
<p>In our system seniors are exempted from year end finals as long as they don’t have any tardies or detentions or unexcused absences. AP students obviously take the AP exam, but that in our system is several weeks before exam week.</p>
<p>When I first went through this with S1 I thought it odd, but now after I’ve experienced two senior years it makes sense. Seniors are a distraction by exam week, the senior honors are already bestowed, the colleges deposited. I still find it “odd” but with the rush to college it is what it is.</p>
<p>My high school allowed seniors to skip exams if they had at least an 83 (I think that was like a B- or something), had 3 absences or less, no disciplinary problems, and 6 tardies or less. They also waived final exams for AP classes in the spring for anyone taking an AP exam, regardless of class.</p>
<p>Yes. DD is IB so has to take 5 IB tests. They take these in May. When the IB seniors finish their last test they no longer go to school. DD will get out 3+ weeks before the other students. The IB test results don’t come back until July.</p>
<p>Our high school eliminated midterms for all students a few years ago (teachers can give midterms but there is no midterm week like finals week, no midterm reported on the report card, and no required percentage of the grade for midterms.) Anybody (not just seniors) in an AP class does not have to take a final if they take the AP test. However, if they do not, the teacher will administer a final which is equivalent to the AP test and the final (unlike the AP test) counts towards the class grade and is not graded on a curve (so basically every kid is forced to take the AP test). Seniors are exempted from finals for any full year non-AP class if they have an A in the class. Finals for seniors are given a week earlier than for other grades so that they can all be resolved well before graduation (which coincides with the last day of finals for underclassmen). I think final exams are worth something like 10% of the final grade. Also, the school policy is that if a senior fails something and then does not meet graduation requirements - they are still permitted to participate in the graduation ceremony but they don’t get their diploma until the do the required summer school.</p>
<p>No senior finals here… he only had 2 in the fall, they can exempt up to 4 based on grades/absences fall semester of senior year, and there are none for spring.</p>
<p>Our school is on trimesters. They have finals at the end of each trimester but seniors don’t take them the third tri. As others have said, the seniors graduate and are out of the school a couple weeks before the others. Few classes are filled with only seniors so to give finals twice within one class would be rough. Teachers would have to come up with different tests for seniors and the rest of the class. They don’t really have midterms, per se. There is usually a week that is really busy about halfway through though, usually with exams and projects due. </p>
<p>The AP tests being so early is really strange for our schools. I know that some states start earlier and get out of school earlier, but our kids have a whole month after the AP tests and it seems really wasteful to me. In fact, one of my D’s AP essay questions was about Nixon and they hadn’t gotten that far in the curriculum. But, when you only have 8 months instead of 9 to complete the curriculum, it is tough to get it all in.</p>
<p>D’s high school exempted seniors with A’s from finals, but only second semester. AP status didn’t matter- only an A grade in the class got you out of a final. </p>
<p>My sons’ high school, though, makes everyone take finals at the same time. No AP exemptions, nothing-- and seniors graduate after everyone is done with finals and final grades are determined.</p>
<p>I forgot about those pesky final projects. Since after the AP test there is still a month of school, all the AP classes assigned the kids final projects - most of them group projects. Some were fun, some were creative, some were ridiculous, some were simple, some took weeks to do, some took only hours - all depended upon the teacher. These final project grades often counted as the final exam grade for the class.</p>
<p>Our seniors do take finals–we are also on block scheduling so it makes sense that you would not be exempt from a spring final that other seniors had to take for a fall semester course.</p>
<p>Our kids have final projects too but they are actually really fun. They make soda bottle rockets, huge sling shots, do physics problems at the amusement park, that kind of stuff.</p>