Features

Berkeley High Beat: How Students Cope with Finals

By Rio Bauce
Friday February 02, 2007

While most Berkeleyans may have found last week the same as any other week, Berkeley High School (BHS) students found it more stressful than usual—they took their semester finals. 

BHS required all teachers to give students a semester final. Most classes and all Advanced Placement (AP) classes got a written test as their final, while some elective classes such as the popular Politics and Power class (where they simulate a Model Congress), taught by Steven Teel, voted on final legislation in Congress. 

The week before finals week brought a lot of anxiety to us and increased our already high stress levels. Our teachers told us to prepare for six two-hour finals given over the course of three days. The administration requested that teachers not give too much homework and not give tests to their students the week prior to finals week, also called Dead Week. While most teachers followed these suggestions, many teachers continued to test their kids and gave them piles of busywork.  

On the flipside, the three days of finals were shorter days. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, students got out of school at 12:40 p.m. That was the best part of finals, I must say. However, I think it would be worthwhile for the school to let kids out early on Tuesday at 12:40 p.m. as well. 

Here’s my reasoning: As it works, first and second period finals were on Wednesday, third and forth period finals were on Thursday, and fifth and sixth period finals were on Friday. On Wednesday, you had a shorter day to study for your Thursday finals. Likewise, on Thursday you had more time to study for your Friday finals. However, isn’t it logical to say that you should get a shorter day on Tuesday to study for your Wednesday finals?  

As fate would have it, I had my most difficult finals on Wednesday (AP Biology and AP Calculus BC). I got out at 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday and had around three hours less time to study for these finals, as I had to study for my Wednesday finals (Politics and Power and French 7/8). I hope that the administrators consider making this change for future years. This way, all finals will receive an equal playing field. 

If you are completely confused about what finals are, I’ll explain it to you. Most teachers use finals as a way to test kids on all the information they have taught them during the course of the semester. Sounds great, doesn’t it? If you’ve learned it all already, it should be easy, right? WRONG.  

Many kids, who didn’t understand the material before, either do really poorly or study the night before the test, “spit it out” on the test, and then forget it all again. This is not to say the kids who do well in the class do poorly on the final, but it is definitely a challenge. Some finals count for almost nothing of your grade, while others can account for up to twenty-percent of your grade. It varies according to the teacher. 

With all of this said, many of us are glad that finals are over. We realize that we have another set of finals at the end of the year, but by then … well, it will be the end of the year. At least the next set of finals will be something to look forward to.