This week, students will take the six semester exams, one for each class.  Although the preparation for these exams is strenuous upon the students, these exams will account for a total of twenty percent of their grade.

Exam week has its ups and downs.  Although students have only two classes over a three-hour time frame, students are granted the ability to leave campus after their two exams are finished.  However, if students do not get their permission slip signed, they must stay on campus for a mandatory study hall and supervised lunch.  Students also have the ability to exempt a  grand total of two exams.  With grades above a 95 percent, students can exempt two exams.  If students’ grades are not as high as they would like, they can exempt one exam if they have not been absent more than five days.  Sophomore Kaylee Lloyd says, “It’s a relief to be able to skip one or two especially if all of your other classes are difficult, like AP.”

Although students have all semester in order to prepare for the semester exams, most students wait until the week before in order to start studying for these exams.  Sophomore Jenane McCullough says, “I suppose that we wait this long because we’re lazy.  We don’t do things ahead of time.”

These exams, which account for a whopping 20 percent of the students’ grade, cause a great amount of stress in the weeks leading up to them, and both the students and the teachers feel the large repercussions of too much stress.