West Brunswick just got recent news that there will be no teacher-made exams for the year, meaning students will only be required to take the state-enforced EOCs and CTE exams. This is the new plan versus the original one where the non EOCs and CTE exams would be teacher made and still count as 20% of a student’s final grade. Many students felt a massive relief and many teachers were less stressed when they found out they did not have to make an exam. On the other hand, some teachers who had already made their exams felt their time was wasted; even if they still give an exam it will only count as one test grade. Other teachers still were worried that some students might be depending on an exam score to pass a class.

There is no telling how the end of semester exams would have gone; safety regulations have to be followed to ensure everyone’s health, but a comfortable environment with no distractions is still needed. Even though there are still some exams taking place, there won’t be nearly as many students on campus as there would have been if every class had an exam. Overall, this cut of exams was the best option for the staff and students’ health and safety.

The safety of everyone isn’t the only thing improved by the cancellation of most exams. The stress of challenging exams is also gone; no need to worry about studying for many hours just to get a passing grade. This semester has been challenging on everyone. Many students feel that they haven’t learned everything they could have in person, so now students can relax over the fact that they don’t have to overstudy. The end of a semester has always been when most students start to freak out and worry; most do not look forward to testing time. Some people feel their test anxiety spike, which sometimes causes them to do poorly on tests even if they are well-versed in the subject. These are the reasons most students felt relief when they were told there wouldn’t be exams.

Most students are happy about no exams, but there are some exceptions. At the beginning of this school year, the idea was that final exams were still on, and every class would have one. The new announcement of no teacher made exams wasn’t even two weeks before the scheduled exam week. The typical final grades are taken from 40% first semester, 40% second semester, and 20% final exam. Some students relied on 20% of their final grade coming from the exam to boost their grade in a class.

Whether you are disappointed or happy that the exams are cancelled, it was the most sensible option to keep everyone safe. Happy end of first semester!