The Pro’s of Cancelled Exams 

By Rachel McKane

Exam week is a week of stress piled onto teenagers.  It’s not always the most favorable week in school, but this year, Spotsylvania County has decided to cancel exams due to the snow days during the week of January 21st.

Since there are no winter exams, students enjoyed the extra time to relax. Many students at Riverbend are very excited about this. Micha Duque, a sophomore said, “I think it’s good that they are optional because if someone already has really good grade, they don’t have to risk lowering it.” Abbi Lokrantz, also a sophomore, said “It’s fantastic! I feel like a weight has lifted.”
With exams cancelled, there was no need to make them up. If Spotsylvania County didn’t cancel exams, “we would have missed another instructional week”, said Dr. Wright.  He also said, “So far, there are no complaints from anyone.” Exams caused teachers to stress about losing precious instructional time, particularly AP teachers since the AP exams are always scheduled in May

There is always some hiccup in the road for teachers to avoid, whether it’s cancelled exams, an earthquake, or three feet of snow. Spotsylvania County always finds a way to do what is right while surprising the students and staff who work in our schools.

The Cons of Cancelled Exams

By: Hailey Matthews

The majority of the Riverbend student body agrees that the snow days and the cancellation of exams that occurred the week of January 21 was a gift from the Spotsylvania School District, a minority of students were upset about the decision.

 While for some students, not having midterms helped them out by not lowering their class averages, others were relying on exams to boost theirs. “I was annoyed by the School Board’s decision to cancel exams because I was looking forward to it helping my grades,” said sophomore, Raneem Sleem. However, classes have to offer optional exams for the students who choose to take the exam. Another disadvantage to the cancellation of midterms is that students are less likely to know what they need to improve on before finals. Sophomore Madhavi Patel said, “I didn’t like how we missed exams because we don’t know what we need to work on and what our strengths and weaknesses are before finals.” In addition to not being prepared for finals, most freshmen missed their first high school exam and won’t know what to expect when it comes to the end of the year exams.

Cancelling exams may not be ideal for everyone, but the decision was up to the School Board and remains the same, even if it isn’t to the benefit of everyone.