That is great! On both your D helping your S and what the library does. That doesn’t happen here.
We are on Quarters, so only half year courses have finals at this time of year, everything else is midterms. They take them the end of January. D21 takes the State English Regent in January as honor kids take it in January of Junior year instead of June. Not much studying to be done for it.
Yes. Finals week here as well. D just took her French final which was an oral. The teacher asked if anyone wanted to get it over with and do it before school starts and she took him up on that! Two more finals today, two tomorrow, one Friday and then a real break. 
And finals week here is the same - our library goes all out. BUT it’s become a zoo with kids not being quiet enough so D and her friend snuck off to a neighboring library that’s less popular and were able to get a study room and some quiet.
We don’t do finals here. Not sure why…think it went away when they started the ridiculous PARCC testing in NJ because it disrupted so much class time. D does have tests in almost every class before break, but not really mid-terms either.
Yep - in the midst of finals here as well. They’re done mid-day on Thursday and we’ll have a much needed break!
At one of our neighboring high schools, a student can skip the final if they have an A in the class, they don’t have to take a final. Makes kids at our high school livid. Here, finals are hard. For the science finals, they have 120-150 multiple choice questions in 90 minute depending on the class. Other finals just as grueling but with a variety of test types.
Hardly anyone ever gets As on finals. So what does this mean? It means that you have to have a high enough A in the class to survive getting a B on the final and the final is worth 20%.
D is sitting at a low A in one class and has spend a ridiculous amount of time studying for it. It’s fine if she gets a B but I’m not sure anyone here is on board with kids getting a B in a class when they performed at an A level for that last four months.
At S21 school they can skip finals also if they have an A, but they still have to go to school. If they miss school on the day of the skipped final, they get a zero on the test. S21 is skipping all his finals and is just sitting in the cafeteria watching movies or reading a book in the library.
Erg!!! See that makes me crazy. Of course it says nothing about how our kids have to take all finals on our school profile. I wish it did.
S19 had one semester sophomore year where he had a low A in three classes and ended up with a B+ after finals. Such baloney. Those were three of his five Bs total. It didn’t hurt him in admissions, maybe because he had all As junior year but, still, it was so frustrating to see him spend literally days studying for those three exams and falling short. I guess maybe colleges can see there’s no grade inflation at our school since I think the top decile of kids cuts off at a 3.8 unweighted. Not that many kids have a 4.0. Still aggravating for the kids who try so hard to hold onto an A and don’t keep it.
No finals here until spring! And I’m pretty sure some courses don’t have any. It’s not a schoolwide thing, but done on a course-by-course basis.
My D is especially afraid of her physics final. By opting out of the physics AP test (she said it’s the AP test overall with the lowest passing rate) she’ll have to take it, and it will count 10% of her yearly grade. Oh, well, she’s only taking AP physics because the school doesn’t offer honors or regular physics and if she makes her first B on it, so be it.
We just found out that D’s physics teacher is changing after the break - and they haven’t been hired yet!!! I’m not happy! Physics is one of her toughest classes!!!
I guess an AP teacher has been on medical leave, so a retired teacher took his place but won’t continue after the break. Because of the licensing requirements, that means the Honors teacher is taking on extra AP classes, and the regular physics teacher (D’s teacher) is taking on those Honors classes. Which leaves D with a yet to be hired teacher. Could be good, could be really bad!!!
Oh, no, @NJWrestlingmom, not just anybody can teach that class!
@NJWrestlingmom Same thing happened when my son took it. The AP Phys 1 teacher left in late Jan for maternity. She did not do a great job up til then but was the only one the school had and was better than the sub they brought in. The sub also taught Honors Physics and assigned the kids the sections she was going to teach to the Honors kid and basically had them teach her the material before she had to present it. Not great…
He had to do a lot of self study to pull through. Good luck to your daughter!!
@homerdog, I’m sure your school is harder than ours. But my D may actually get two Bs this year…right now she’s just under an A for the nine weeks in AP Lang, which would be a complete shocker for her. Will have a week or two left in the term after Christmas to bring it up. She has taken for granted that she’ll always do well in English. But she’s met her match in this class, with all the emphasis on the mechanics of rhetoric/usage…she can’t just fly on her innate skills as before, but has to stop and analyze. The teacher (who has a PhD) is known to be exacting and hard, but I’ve never heard a complaint about her from parents. All of Ds friends (who are A or mostly-A students) have Bs or Cs in the class this grading period. A good wake-up call for college!
@3kids2dogs it’s finals week for us as well…Friday is the last day of the semester and early release…we go back to school Jan 6 with new term, new classes.
Everyone has to take the final at our high school too. Graduating seniors get a break - can’t remember whether no one has to take their second semester finals or if there’s no final if you are taking the AP exam, but it’s one of those. Juniors have to take all their finals plus AP tests.
@NJWrestlingmom , that just stinks!
Finals week here, D is crawling to the finish line. Lowest grade is AP Lang (no surprise). This semester has been an incredible tough grind and she is “OVER IT”. She has two 1/2 days left with finals in 6 of 8 classes. Her body and brain will hibernate this weekend. Come on 2021 kids push through these last 2 days!
Our library’s Facebook page posted pictures of the all high school kids studying and there’s one featuring my D and S23. They are at a table for two just like they told me and both are studying hard; my S with his big, over the ear (noise canceling) Beats on and you can see my daughter’s iPad and it appears to be school work and not a video (LOL). Not that I had any doubts, well - maybe a few small ones . . .
@3kids2dogs Hilarious!! I sometimes see S19 on his college’s Instagram feed and it so fun to see them when you don’t expect it…even if it’s just at the local library!
@3kids2dogs Midterms before break here. School starts early - second week in August - and ends early - Friday before Memorial Day. Finals in all classes, and some finals multi-day (AP Lit and AP Gov - longer FRQs done earlier, then MC and short answer this week). @homerdog Same grading here, hard midterms/finals, so you need a strong A going in.
S21 had his last midterm yesterday and imagines it is all R&R now. Has forgotten that he got way behind on his independent study AP Stats (a course he asked to take but which gets low priority compared to the courses with in-person teachers), so he needs to do an hour a day on that most of break.
@NJWrestlingmom I’m really sorry to hear about AP Physics!! You don’t just find a good high school science teacher on short notice, and it would be a tough self-study for many/most kids. Our very small school has been so-o-o lucky the past 5 years to have had a very good prof from the local college come teach AP Calc and, in alternate years, AP Chem and AP/Honors Physics. She retires at the end of this year and the administration naively thinks it will be easy to replace her. S21 needs physics next year, and I’m concerned.
S21 has had 4 AP physics teachers this year. So far. (Don’t get me started.)