Midterm and final exams tend to be dreaded weeks by students, as, after long months of much studying and dedication, students must power through this last week of exams before the breaks.
Freshman can only exempt one exam, sophomores and juniors can exempt two and seniors can exempt all classes—that is, if they meet the semester grade, tardy and absence requirements. All students must have 10 or fewer absences that are not school related activities to exempt.
Seniors in particular, the ones navigating college applications, scholarships, internships, jobs and many other responsibilities also need to take their finals and midterms if they don’t meet all the requirements. However, these exams only take away from these students’ time, and are unnecessary especially if the reason is due to absences and not the student is failing the class.
Even if seniors are excelling academically in both Semester 1 (S1) and Semester 2 (S2), if they have more than 10 absences per semester, they are required to take these exams. This year’s Exam Exemption Policy states that for “first semester, seniors who maintain an “‘A’” (90) average and meet the attendance and tardy requirements may exempt ALL exams. Second semester, seniors who have a “C“ (70) or higher for each quarter (3rd & 4th) and meet the attendance and tardy requirements may exempt ALL exams.” Furthermore, tardies are also considered, as the policy makes it clear that “any student who has 11 or more unexcused tardies in a class will be unable to exempt the exam for that class.”
Seniors’ passing grades demonstrate not only their competence but also a clear understanding, and even mastery of the material. Requiring these students to sit through for midterms and finals due to their absences is redundant and unnecessary.
“I have to keep such a close track of my absences once again this year, but with college applications and also with days I was sick, it’s hard to not pass 10 days. It’s just unnecessary to make us sit through those exams,” senior Aniya Melina said.
Most seniors are balancing many things at once and still maintain A- grades or above for the first semester. Some fail to keep their absences under 10 days, but the question is, why should absences be so important?
“If I am passing the classes with an A- or higher, why should 11 or more absences matter that much?” senior Gianna Virtuoso said.
This idea also translates to those who go over the maximum amount of absences and simply stop showing up because they don’t see the need to come when they are passing their classes.
“It also gets to a point that if you get to 11 absences you just don’t even see the point of coming many days, as you already need to take the exam. I just focus on keeping my grades up but I don’t need to be here every day to do that,” senior Andrew Pavlov said.
Many days where most senior teachers are absent or on skip days where most exams and quizzes don’t happen, students who come to school feel like they are just wasting their time when they could be much more productive at home.
“I’ve missed very few days, but those days I get my work done so much more quickly and I can cover all the information from seven hours of school in about three hours. It comes to a point that coming to school at times almost doesn’t make sense,” senior Samantha Lesser said.
Some students would even rather come to school when sick or when other circumstances have occurred because missing school overwhelms them and leads to so much makeup work that it’s better to come to school unwell. Not only is this unhealthy, but it creates a bad work culture for students who are prioritizing their grades and amount of tardies over their own mental and physical health.
Allowing seniors to exceed the current 10 absence limit while still reaching a grade requirement for the semester would be a way to properly recognize students’ hard work and accurately reflect their learning abilities. It would also better align with the purpose of classes and exams, which is to assess learning, not to punish students who have already demonstrated mastery of a subject. Seniors’ grades should be the ultimate indicator of success in their classes, not the number of days they have been present.
The Exam Exemption Policy for the 2025-2026 school year “strongly [encourages] students to stay home when they are sick,” yet that does not tend to be the reality for many students who cannot afford to miss those days because they will otherwise be unable to exempt their exams. (Image/American Heritage)
