Last year, students across the county shed buckets of blood, sweat, and tears over their textbooks. Semester exams returned to devour the innocent brains of every Seminole student who did not have an A average at the end of each semester. Prepare to change that, ’Noles.

This year, Seminole High School is trying out something completely new. Beginning in the 2011-2012 school year, the school will no longer be including semester exams. Principal Mike Gaudreau says that the new policy will allow “for more teaching because there is not as much testing going on.”

The new policy removes semester exams but not the 9 week exams, however. Every student will still be required to take them and there isn’t an exemption for it.

Many teachers will be pleased. They’ll be allowed to teach more days during the school year instead of handing out tests that take a substantial amount of time out of their schedule.

Senior Anum Dossani doesn’t agree with the change. She says, “Some may disagree, but I think that if we don’t get the practice of taking long exams, we won’t be prepared for college exams, especially since most college classes simply base their grades off exams.” Many others will agree with her but others are still grateful for the removal of these exams. Afterall, FCAT and other longer exams still exist.

Others are somewhat “iffy.” Sophomore Aaron Sanders is extremely happy that there won’t be semester exams this year except for the fact that he won’t get the chance to bring his grade back up for the semester. That’s a common fear among high school students.

Gaudreau says that the reason Seminole is changing its policy was because all the high schools are trying to adopt the policy.
Students can still look forward to 9 week exams. Those tests count for a portion of students’ grades. Semester averages will be calculated by averaging out the two quarters.