Finals week is here as the third quarter is coming to an end. Finals week is the most stressful week of the school year and students have to turn in late work and students are starting to prepare for their tests. Seniors, on the other hand, have been getting their skip-a-final forms filled out and dropped off at the office to see if they qualify to skip some or all of their finals. This is one of the best parts of senior year. This allows students to have more free time and a longer spring break.

The requirements for skipping a final are: the student must have a C or better until the first day of finals, the student may not have more than 4 tardies per class, the student may not have any unexcused absences, and students may not have any major disciplinary referrals.

Seniors are excited to have extra time this week and not worry about finals. Some even get to have a longer spring break. “I get to skip all my finals. I’m hyped. I’m going to Florida the day of finals,” Maddie Butner said.

For many seniors, the option to skip finals relieves a lot of stress. Finals take a lot of time to prepare for and are mentally straining. “I am excited to skip a few finals because it will relieve a lot of stress during finals week. During my free time, I want to hang out with people on school nights and relax during class times,” Alexis Brixius said.

In some classes, seniors aren’t able to skip a final regardless of meeting the requirements. Most of these classes are AP. In most AP classes students are taking a chapter test. The reason for this is because teachers have to fit a semester’s worth of AP curriculum into one quarter, leaving teachers no days to spare. “I personally think it should be a choice, a test won’t really help improve a score on the exam later,” Jonathan Scheiffert said.

Some students take the news of required tests in stride. “Honestly it doesn’t bother me that much,” Sam Decker said.

Some finals are harder than others and seniors are very excited to skip some of the harder finals. “I’m most excited to skip Psychology. Why? The last few weeks my attention has not been there fully because I knew I would be able to skip the final,” Scheiffert said.