It’s Final…Time!

I liked how my previous blog entry allowed an open-discussion to occur based on a general question presented in the context, so I have another little question to throw out there that's picking at my curiosity. Whether you're in high school or college, you most likely had/have to take finals this year. However, I'm wondering, based on your education facility, how important the finals are. Like…hmm, I'm trying to choose proper wording here. Does your school prepare you for the finals in advance? Do the teachers/professors give you the information beforehand? Do you spend countless hours studying for a single subject or is it a cram-it-in-one-night ordeal?

The finals at my good ol' school of Lakeland High start this week. Particularly, only the elective courses are holding the final exams. Our last day of school is June 16^th. The late dismissal is due to the large amount of snow days that we had this year. They built my school on top of a hill on the top of a mountain – it has been ravaged by wind, snow, and other elements of nature that normally have a fiercer force at higher altitudes. Off-topic: I love how the layout of the school was designed by a Florida company as they created three light courts scattered throughout the school so that we may enjoy the outdoors in three feet of snow. Bravo, old chums! In reality, the light courts are needed to – well – provide light to the classrooms. Wow I got really off-topic. The finals at Lakeland are enforced like they should mean the world to us, but the teachers barely prepare us to take their final test of the school year. Hell, we're lucky if a teacher actually prepares us. In classes such as anatomy, AP chemistry, etc. they expect us to know everything we ever learned and to apply it to the questions on the test. Other 'nicer' classes, such as Spanish III, sociology, pre-calculus, etc. actually give us a few worksheets and allow us to practice for the final. And then you have classes such as health and American History II when you don't know what the hell is going on (meaning they give you the info, but expect somewhat specific things when asking for it on the test). The path to prepare definitely depends on the teacher, as one can see here. I honestly wish the school board somewhat limited the teachers with their actions regarding the finals. For example, our "lovely" AP chemistry teacher is making us hand in homework on electrochemistry before we're able to even touch the final. I don't even know what the hell electrochemistry is as I was sick all last week and missed all of the notes and presentations regarding it.

I don't believe our teachers really give us enough of a heads-up when it comes to final time. We can't blame them, however. The school board doesn't know what the final schedule is until about four weeks before we take them, and the teachers are in a hectic rush trying to cram in as many lessons as they can before the year ends. That should be another handy rule enforced by the school board: "All teachers must stop teaching on May X and begin proper preparations for the final exams, if applicable." Honestly, stop teaching us already! If we wanted to give two shits about World War II, electrochemistry, or Susana y Javier, I'll freaking Wikipedia it over the summer (which I probably will). There's just too much going on right now for the teachers to cram all of this knowledge and information into us. What's even worse is that it's wasted effort. The teachers are trying to teach, but the students are too worn out to learn the information, thus the whole teaching of that lesson was pretty damn ineffective. Wasn't it? Go shove your oxidation states up your ass! Another lab to do? I don't expect an easy time in college – don't get me wrong – but how many classes do you have in college at once? That question always boggled me. I have seven classes, with others having about eight as I have a regular study hall. That's seven to eight exams we must take in a week. That's seven to eight teachers trying to throw information at us in a week. It's crazy! Just stop! Teachers don't understand that the world doesn't revolve around their class. They throw fifty assignments at us expecting that we'll go home and work only on that assignment. Well sorry – I might have two tests to study for, a Spanish skit to work on, three English poems to read, etc. And then one must create their priorities. What class is more important to me? Which one should I focus on more? And to be highly honest right now: even though it's aimed to be the most important class of our junior years, chemistry is at the bottom of my priorities list. I can clearly live without knowing the charge of a calcium ion or how many moles there are in a hot air balloon at an elevation of 2,043 feet. I don't care! In the life that I have planned out for myself, that knowledge will go in the recycling bin of my head, and stay there forever. You know what finals mean to me? The last time I have to give a shit about a class. And the day that I hand in my AP chemistry final will be the happiest day of my life – whether I did well on it or not. Hell, handing it in blank may produce a better grade than if I tried. And like I said before – I've been sick for over a week and missed six days of school. Therefore, on top of preparing for the finals, I have a shitload of work to make up. Good riddance!

Well, I have to go study, and read things, and learn how to do the trigonometry of a right triangle, and write with a pencil, so…have a good one.

P.S. Just to notify you, I got rid of the Adbrite ads on the blog. The blog should load quicker now. Still waiting for a reply from Google Adsense after about two weeks of sending the form in.