When the first quarter finally drew to an end, students experienced the first final exams of this school year. The structure of finals was obviously different from normal, with half the usual number of tests; in fact, many teachers chose not to create a traditional exam at all, opting to have students complete activities, do verbal exams, or forgo the tests entirely.

Senior high precalculus teacher Joanie Sauer opted to conclude the quarter with a test consisting of material only from the last chapter her students studied. “The content was all learned so fast and furiously that there wasn’t really time for students to forget that much from chapters one, two and three. It just didn’t seem as though it was necessary,” Sauer said.

Even with cutting a final exam, Sauer still had to take extra measures to avoid cheating on Zoom, including printing five versions of the test, having students keep their microphones on, and having students point their cameras at their work. Another reason Sauer had for waiving a final exam was the lack of time to study. “There wasn’t that day or two that you would want to give [students] to prepare for finals,” Sauer said.

Sophomore McKenzie Ehmiller also noted the lack of prep time. “Only one of my teachers talked about the final at the beginning of the week. The rest talked about it on Wednesday, the day before we were taking them,” Ehmiller wrote in a survey sent out to BSM students.

Of the 117 students who participated in the survey on final examinations, only 35% had a final in all four of their classes, and nearly a quarter reported that they spent less than an hour studying for said finals. “[I] love how they were more like a bigger project or more like a regular test!” junior Dascia Ferris said.