As the end of the year approaches, the stress inducing impact of final exams comes as well. In order to end the year sooner, some teachers especially in the language and science departments use the long blitz period as a result of SOL testing for students to to take their final exams. Despite teacher’s intentions to end the year early, using the blitz period for finals only increases stress.
As of 2018, teens are more stressed than ever. Studies show that high schoolers rank academics as the highest stressor in their lives. This can lead to many problems such as depression and diabetes. Finals are one of the biggest factors people’s stress. A study conducted by MentalHelp said that 31% of students believe that finals are the biggest source of their stress.
This is due to the fact that finals are a big part of the final grade. In classes like Algebra and Chemistry, the final exam is worth 20% as much as a quarter of the school year. Because of this, as much time as possible is needed in order to study. Placing finals during the long SOL period moves them up by three weeks, increasing the amount of stress that final exams bring.
The gap between the SOLs and finals allows for more time to study and review for the end of the year tests. Making finals earlier would cause them to be pressured to do well and give them less time to study which would lead to lower test scores.
People are already busy during this period with SOLs and IB testing. The weeks between SOLs and Finals allows people to rest up and prepares them for the last big test of the school year. Putting finals in between SOLs would ultimately overwhelm people and may hurt their test scores in the process
Moving final exams up to the SOL block would cause more pressure in an already stressful period, and would end up hurting people as a result.