As students flood in from Winter Break and with the new year in mind, the anxiety of impending exams comes right with it. There is a 2-week period between the end of Winter Break and the beginning of exams, leaving students with plenty of time to study, procrastinate, and stress. Most of the 2-week period is dedicated to review, some classes being more lenient than others with the course material grind.
But with a snow day already disrupting the return to school and other changes affecting exam week, what will this semester’s exams look like? Here’s everything you need to know.
Exams Begin on Tuesday, January 21
Due to MLK Jr. Day on Monday, January 20, students will gear up for exams that Tuesday due to the spontaneous snow day on January 6. Rather than eliminating a day of review for students, teacher-made exams will now be held across several days during exam week. Each teacher-made exam will be held in the afternoon, starting with 1st period on Tuesday, 2nd on Wednesday, 3rd on Thursday, and 4th on Friday. The same pattern follows with CTE exams.
Current Exam Schedule
| Friday, Jan 17 | Tuesday, Jan 21 | Wednesday, Jan 22 | Thursday, Jan 23 | Friday, Jan 24 |
| Regular School Day
(9:00-3:25) |
AM – English 2 & CTE 2nd Period | AM – Math 1&3 & CTE 3rd Period | AM – Biology & CTE 4th Period | AM – Makeups & Teacher-Made 4th Period |
| PM – Teacher-Made 1st Period/ CTE 1st Period | PM – Teacher-Made 2nd Period | PM – Teacher-Made 3rd Period | PM – No exams |
The Snow Day Complication
Snow started to fall in the afternoon of January 5, which just so happened to be the day before students and staff returned back to school. Snowing for at most 10 minutes, followed by rain, left many with hope for the break to be extended by just one day. That night school officials announced that school would operate on a two-hour delay on Monday, January 6. Due to the freezing temperatures overnight, that delay turned into a cancellation. Since that day was cancelled, it is required by state law to be made up. That make-up day happens to fall on the Friday before exam week, which is usually reserved for Teacher-Made Exams, causing exams to be moved around just a little bit.
When Do I Have to Be Here?
If you have a state exam, it is required that you show up and take it on the specified day. If you have a reason for missing the exam (e.g. a doctor’s note), that will need to be provided to allow you to make up the exam. Communication with your teacher is key. Make sure they know if you can’t make it.
As far as teacher-made exams go, you are exempt from your exams if you have an 80 or above in the class for the semester and have 8 absences or fewer (not including the day of exams.) These are the following classes that mandate an exam (no exemptions for any reason).
For all exams occurring in the morning, students must arrive and be at their designated testing location before 8:15 AM when the exam will start exactly at that time. Once your exam is complete around 12:30, an announcement will be made for students to go home or wait for their next testing session. The afternoon testing will begin promptly at 1:10 PM.
The buses will only run before and after school with no mid-day transportation, meaning that if you do not have transportation before or after your exam you will have to come in that morning or stay that afternoon to wait for dismissal.
End-of-Course Exams
- Math 1
- Math 3
- English 2
- Biology
CTE Exams
- Interior Design Fundamentals
- Food and Nutrition I
- Food and Nutrition II
- Culinary Arts and Hospitality
- Agricultural Mechanics II
- Biomedical Technology
- Health Science I
- Child Development
- Business Management
- Business Essentials
If I’m Exempt, What Happens If I Take the Exam Anyway?
If you qualify to be exempt from the exam but decide to take it anyway, the exam cannot hurt your semester average. In other words, if you wind up in class for this exam but you don’t have to take it, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. A student with an 89, for example, might want to take the exam to see if their grade will bump up to an A. With exams weighing 20% of the semester average, this is a real possibility.
What If I Have a Yearlong Class? AP Classes?
All teachers must have an exam ready for students to take. If you are in a yearlong class, it will have a teacher-made exam. The same applies to AP classes that are held for 2 semesters. In addition to the AP exam itself, these classes also have teacher-made exams. If you meet the exemption requirements, you do not have to take these exams, though you may choose to do so for practice or for a chance to improve your semester average. AP exams do not count towards your grade for the class but do create an excellent opportunity to present to colleges and focus on college course level of work. The AP exams will take place in May, giving you plenty of time to prepare.
When Will I Have My Grades?
When it comes to teacher-made exams, it’s imperative that you are patient as all exams look different. It can be a multiple choice 55-question AP-style test or even writing an essay in a certain time slot. While there is no prediction as to when you will get your teacher-made scores, you can know what to expect with state-mandated exams. Typically with state-mandated CTE exams, you will be able to access your scores by the end of the testing session. Whereas core exams will take longer to be processed and considered.
If you are taking the English II EOC in particular, be prepared to wait for up to a week for your results. Of all the End-of-Course exams, this is the only one that includes written response questions that have to be graded by individual readers at the state level. This is one reason why the English II EOC is given on the first day of exam week: there is more time for the grades to be returned to the teachers before report cards go out.
Anything Else?
Exam season can be tough, but there are still things you can do to make it manageable. Most people have heard that you should eat before your test, that way your brain is at its full potential to take an exam. But bringing a lunch and snacks for afterward is also imperative to getting through the “hurry up and wait” portion of the testing session. Once everyone in your testing room has finished, there is often a long period of time of sitting. You won’t be able to access your phone until the testing session has concluded. It is highly suggested that you should bring a book, something to sketch with, a coloring book, or something non-electronic to entertain yourself.
There is nothing you can do to avoid the stress and anxiety that comes with the bland and sterile white-and-black testing format, but you can avoid being unprepared. If you are someone who finds yourself frequently chewing gum in class, chew the same flavor of gum to re-jog your memory. There are many methods of studying that can be found on Pinterest, and you can try a couple until you feel something sticks in your brain.
If you have never tested before, once it’s over, it’s over! There is nothing you can do to change your work, and while that concept is scary, it’s also somewhat freeing. You are done with the stress and the buildup, and you are free to make new decisions and even do better in the future. Think as positively as what is feasible for you, and when it’s done, it’s done.
