By Matt Nash,Leavitt Area High School

In the issue of March 8, look for the rebuttal

story “Not breaking tradition.”

For as long as I can remember both Juniors and Seniors have been exempt from their midterms and finals as long as they had a 93 + grade average in the class. Many kids look forward to Junior year because they are allowed to be exempt from their midterms and finals. Students see it as a motivation to work harder in their classes so they don’t have to go through the struggle of studying for the big tests. Derek Bowen of The Buzz says, “I think it’s ridiculous, if it’s been that rule for other people in the past why should they stop now.”

The main reason that Juniors will not be exempt this year is because if you are allowed to be exempt from your mid terms and finals in high school, then once you get to college you will not be prepared to take them there. But if this is so, then why is this year’s Senior class still able to be exempt? If there is such an overwhelming percentage of college students do not do well on their midterms and finals then why wouldn’t you want to change that right away, and give the Seniors the best chance to succeed? In a decision that could change somebody’s life, why wouldn’t you want to give him or her the best available resources in order for them to do well?

I think that motivation is one of the biggest factors in this entire event. Many kids who were an average B+ will work harder so that they get an A- in order to not have to take the midterm or final. There would be nothing worse then to get a 92 in a class and have to take the final, when somebody who got just one point better than you doesn’t have to take the final. Also, many of the people who are already getting that A grade don’t usually get rewarded because of this. I think that by letting Juniors be exempt from the midterms and finals it is rewarding us doing the hard work that we put in through the semesters and if we are not allowed to be exempt from the mid terms and finals then it is telling us that good grades should be expected not rewarded.

If the exemptions are taken away from Juniors then they will start losing motivation and eventually many grades will start to fall. Junior year is the year that colleges look the closest at. If we lose the motivation to do good, then many grades will fall and it will be harder for Leavitt 2007 students to get into college. Why is it that the administration wants to take away the biggest motivation for us to do well in classes? If this is all a plan to get us to do better in college, they might want to think about this; before you are able to take a college midterm or final, you must first be in college.

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