On Wednesday, September 10, 2025, the LRHS admin announced that the exam policy for the 25-26 school year had been updated. 

Before the policy change, 9th-11th graders had to take a teacher-made end-of-course exam in all of their classes regardless of their grade. For 12th graders, if they kept a B or higher and had fewer than 10 absences in a class, they were exempt from their finals. 

With the new policy, now all grade levels can be exempt from their finals if they keep a B or higher with fewer than 10 absences in a class. There is an extra stipulation for 9th-12th graders that requires them have fewer than 10 tardies in a class as well. 

The policy received mixed reviews from the student population. Most underclassmen and juniors appreciate the updated policy, while most seniors dislike it. 

“I’m ok with it…If we make it easier for everyone [to take the exam], our overall GPA is going to go up,” said Carter Nelson, junior. 

“It’s better, because if you work hard in class, then it pays off. Since I get mostly A’s and B’s, then I don’t have to take exams,” said Max Douglas, sophomore. 

“I think it’s unfair. I spent so much time studying and stressing over [exams],” said Kennedy Horner, senior. 

One of the two main reasons seniors disapprove of the new exam policy is that they had to take exams in their first three years of high school, and they feel underclassmen should have to as well.

“It’s not fair. I had to take my exams, so they should have to,” said Carter Lemons, senior. 

“I’ve had to take my exams all three years, and now that I’m a senior, I can be exempt, but so can the rest of the school,” said an anonymous senior, via Google Forms. 

Prior to the new exam policy, a major perk of senior year was exam exemption; current seniors feel it’s unfair that now everyone can get exempt. Out of 26 randomly sampled seniors, 22 felt the exam policy was unfair for this specific reason.

“I was looking forward to senior year and not having to do [exams]. Now freshmen, sophomores, and juniors just get to skip it basically,” said Horner. 

“You should have to earn that right. It’s like a senior thing,” said Lemons. 

“It’s unfair to seniors to have to do exams for three years just to now have the senior privilege made global,” said an anonymous senior, via Google Forms. 

The other main reason seniors dislike the new policy is because of the effects final exams can have on GPAs.

“My GPA has been negatively impacted by my exam scores,” said an anonymous senior, via Google Forms. 

“Because seniors had to take exams every year, and it affected our grade,s but now the underclassmen don’t have to deal with grade changes from exams,” said an anonymous senior, via Google Forms. 

More often than not, final exams hurt students’ grades instead of helping them. Several surveyed seniors said that they would support the new policy more if they voided all the finals they’ve taken throughout high school. 

On the other hand, underclassmen and juniors appear to support the new policy readily. In a random sample survey of 64 non-seniors (25 freshmen, 13 juniors, and 26 sophomores), 60 said they think the new policy is fair and that they support it. 

“I think it’s a really good policy for us underclassmen to be able to work harder during the school year and be able to catch a break towards the end,” said Christina Duduman, junior. 

“It’s fair, because if you have good attendance and good grades, then you don’t have to take it… A lot of people are going to work harder to get A’s and B’s,” said Douglas.  

“It gives me less stress and more motivation to do better,” said an anonymous freshman, via Google Forms. 

As mentioned before, the underclassmen policy is slightly different than the senior policy, in that they have to have fewer than 10 tardies as well. However, most are willing to overlook this stipulation if they don’t have to take their finals. 

“I think that it puts a lot of pressure on us to keep our absences and tardies down… If we’re sick, that also counts towards our absences,” said Duduman. 

“I believe it is mostly fair… Absences sometimes cannot be controlled,” said an anonymous freshman, via Google Forms. 

Exams are a polarizing topic in high school. Even with the mixed reviews from students, it’ll be interesting to see how the new exam policy affects grades and GPAs.