During finals week, both students and teachers at Sequoia High School are doing their best to prepare for this stressful time.
Many students dislike finals, not only due to the fact that they’re tough but because they can also falsely reflect a student’s performance.
“I think how it does for your self-worth obviously shouldn’t define you. I do think that it isn’t an accurate representation of all the hard work you’ve done all year,” junior Cassie Watson said.
Staff members, like math teacher Suba Ramanathan, agree with this as well. “I hate giving finals because it makes the students feel like there’s no possibility of redemption, ” Suba said.
Although it may put a lot of pressure on students, these substantial finals can be important to wrap up everything you’ve learned from the year.
“I like finals, and I feel like they’re really stressful sometimes, but don’t have to be as stressful as they are. I think it’s important to have some sort of capstone or something to wrap up the semester,” English teacher Jasmine Schimek said.
Freshman will be taking their first-ever final next week, and many, like Luke Popler, are nervous as they aren’t sure how each class’s final will look.
“I don’t really know what to expect. It seems like the content is pretty easy so far, just a few writing assignments that I think will take a little bit of time,” Popler said.
Although it can be hard to predict what will be on each final, there are easy ways to be able to study properly.
“The teachers are very predictable. Their final exams look like all the other exams they gave before. So review all the exams and find out what you got wrong,” Suba said.
While teachers can help prepare students for finals by giving them lots of review time, other students have found their own study methods that work well for them.
“I use the app Shovel, which is my favorite thing. It’s so helpful. You can put in all of your assignments that you have and you can actually block out time. So it kind of gives you a visual, like I’m going to work an hour on this and I think I need about six hours of studying to kind of block it throughout your week,” Watson said.
Each studying strategy varies from student to student.
“[I] put what I need to know on either Quizlet or Doc,” Popler said.
Despite all the stress and worries about finals ground around, there can be lots to look forward to over the well-deserved break.
“[I’m excited for] building all the LEGO sets that are with me so I can bring them in and share them with my students,” Schimek said.