Finals week, chiefly composed of three days of final exams, instills fear and dread among many Upper St. Clair High School students. Considering that final exams are 10% of one’s grade, they do hold a considerable weight in regards to a student’s final grade in a class, but they still are not important enough to stress too much over. There are ways to be at the best shape you can be before finals.
Finals, though 10% of the grade in most classes, are often overestimated and glorified. The common trend among finals is that they can hardly increase a grade (they can only move a B to an A if the B is at least 89.0%, and they can only change a C to a B if the C is a 78.0%), but they can certainly damage a grade significantly. Only if one has greater than a 89.0%, a 78.0%, or a 67.0% can finals actually move the grade up to the next letter grade, so if a student has just below those numbers, they are basically guaranteed the grade which they currently have unless they get an abysmally low score (for example, someone with an 87.5% in a class cannot get an A in the class but needs a staggering 4% grade [a low F] on the final exam to move down to the next lower letter grade). However, if a pupil has a borderline grade (between 1% of an A, 2% of a B, or 3% of a C, or 4% of a D) he/she must study exhaustively to move up to the next letter grade.
Different methods of preparation before finals exist. Junior Jack Snowdon said that he treats the nights before finals like “any other night.” Conversely, some other people, especially those with borderline grades, study vigorously the night before. In actuality, the latter may actually be worse for a student than the former, since studying vigorously the night before causes stress and pressure. People should study well the week or two before finals, but they should not cram the night before.
Also, rest and nutrition both the night before and in the morning are almost essential to execute an impressive mark on the finals. Mrs. McElroy, the school nurse, said “There’s research out there that proves that students need adequate rest and food . Food is your fuel and it gives you energy. There have been incidents here when students became sick when they didn’t eat. “ A good dinner the night before and a good breakfast the morning of the final exam, as well as a good rest the night before are necessary to have a satisfactory grade. Too often students lose focus on exams due to poor rest and/or bad nutrition.
People shouldn’t get stressed before exams, even though finals inherently cause a level of consternation among students. While the final hold a level of importance, they should not be feared by students no matter what. Freshman Yasaswi Duvvuru “I don’t know what’s going to be on there, which makes me feel unsure.” Particularly with freshmen, who for the most part have never taken high school final exams, the uncertainty o f finals is a conduit for stress. But studies show that stress causes, among other things, irritability, tiredness, poor concentration, and a poor short term memory (all things which are imperative to avoid before finals) (www.nsw.edu.au).