This upcoming exam week students will have a one-hour break between exams instead of 30 minutes, as in past years.
The change is a pilot run to test if more time will help students with accommodations. It will also help minimize the effects of technological difficulties, acting principal Karen Bryant said. If the county operates on a two-hour delay schedule, students will only have a thirty-minute break between exams, Bryant said in a Whitnet email to parents.
The added time allows students with extended time to take all exams in the scheduled time periods. Before, students who have accommodations had to arrange their exams so that they had one each day, English/special-ed teacher Stephanie Chaplin said.
Students without accommodations could generally finish exams in the beginning of the week, Chaplin said. Yet for students with accommodations, most disliked the previous schedule because they had one exam on every day of the week, she said.
Some students without accommodations also support the change. Junior Grace Meyers is happy because the extra time will give her more time to study for her second exam, she said.
However, not all students with accommodations appreciate the change. Senior Elena Kozak said she doesn’t see the change as beneficial. She usually finishes exams 30 minutes before the normal time and doesn’t use her extended time, she said.
Sophomore Ryan Nordheimer, who doesn’t have accommodations, said he’s also unhappy with the change.
“It allows more time to stress between exams instead of getting it over with,” Nordheimer said. “This does give me extra study time, but this will not be very useful because if I don’t know the information for an exam an hour before the test then I’m not going to do very well even if I study during this period.”
However, Bryant does not foresee this change being detrimental to students because it will provide students with the opportunity to relax between exams, she said.
After exam week, administrators will evaluate the benefits and decide if the change will be implemented again next year.
