First semester finals detrimental to seniors

Seniors at The Harker School, the private school in San Jose, don’t have first semester finals. Their first semester gives seniors more time to work on college applications. Seniors at Saratoga High and many other schools have no such luck.

By November, seniors realize the gargantuan amount of work ahead of them: essays for Common App, UC apps and supplementals, time needed to request teachers for quality recommendations and the last-minute effort of joining as many clubs on campus to beef up their extracurriculars. Within the next month, the load only expands with college interviews — and, worst of all, finals.

Tests and quizzes assess how much students learned about a particular subject; they’re annoying, but they’re useful. Finals, on the other hand, often do more harm than good. Seniors have more than enough to worry about without stressing over re-learning multiple months’ worth of material.

The grades they’ve worked so hard for can potentially tank in a matter of days. Juggling impending college deadlines and studying for finals leaves students frazzled and overworked. There simply isn’t enough time in a day to do what they’re expected to do.

Senior finals should consist of broad, conceptual questions and last no more than an hour. Why should a student be penalized so severely for dropping a negative sign or misremembering a rule he or she learned in the first three weeks of class?

Perhaps another idea would be independent senior projects instead of finals. Students would have the chance to demonstrate what they’ve learned without the unwarranted stress of a potentially disastrous grade-drop. By senior year, students have become accustomed to hearing from their AP teachers about a college style learning technique.

With senior projects, students will have the opportunity to simulate a concept they will encounter in college: senior thesis or design projects. Students can research topics that truly interest them. As much as teachers, students and parents hate to admit it, school takes a backseat to college applications. Senior projects would allow students to focus on a topic they care about while knowing that the value of this information goes beyond 15 percent of their grade.