<p>Hey, everyone!</p>
<p>What do you all think about required statewide graduation tests? Do your states have them?</p>
<p>To me, it doesnt make much sense why you cant get exempt from those if you have a decent grade (perhaps >B). And why are they called graduation tests if you take them in freshman/sophomore year?</p>
<p>Our state has them for Math, English, Social Studies, and Science. To encourage students to prepare, my Ds school lets you skip the exam and keep your current grade if you get Mastery and skip the exam, but have 100% averaged in as your grade if you get Advanced. Unfortunately, the scores are just coming out this week, so you have to keep preparing as if you will take the exam, but at least if you reach those levels, you get the day off. I don't know if this is just her school policy or if it is statewide.</p>
<p>For California, we have the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam) exam.. just instituted for the class of 2006. It was administered for a few years now, but starting for this class, people need to pass to graduate. It's not terribly hard. Most people take it in their sophomore year and pass for math and english. Few retake it in their junior year if they didn't pass. Most people don't need to retake it for their senior year, because it's mainly eighth-grade material. It's not a huge deal, but it gets calculated into your school's API score.</p>