CESJDS has canceled high school final exams due to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a mixture of thrill and sadness among students. As students struggle through these unprecedented times, there has been a significant amount of uncertainty and stress regarding their education and wellbeing as JDS students. 

“We thought that roughly three-quarters of students grades were completed at that point, and we were entering into a new mode of learning that is new and different for everyone, so we figured that it didn’t feel right to try and put the stress and pursuer on students when they will be learning in this new mode,” High School Principal and Associate Head of School Dr. Marc Lindner said.

Final exams are a way for students to review what they have learned over the second semester of the academic school year. Finals account for 10% of one’s overall year grade and are often a big source of stress among students.

Some people are very happy about finals being canceled because they don’t need to stress about studying and getting a good grade on a test while others are upset because finals are a way to raise one’s grade before school ends. 

Freshman Elliot Bramson has mixed emotions about the cancellation of finals. On one hand, he is happy because he doesn’t have to stress over finals, but he is also concerned that he will lose valuable experience. 

“Finals are a different type of test, and I think that it is very important that we are able to take the finals as freshmen because it is a very good practice for us in the future when we take more standardized tests,” Bramson said.

JDS administrators like finals and see the benefits of them because they give the students a way to recall the knowledge they have learned throughout the school year and really show what they have learned. 

“The ninth-graders are not having the experience of finals this year, but I am very very hopeful that the freshman will get three more years of finals. They are missing out on the experience, but they still have three more years to go,” Linder said.