While allowing students to exempt from finals is a good idea, the process to exempt from finals is both tedious and unnecessary. The actual process to exempt includes filling out an exemption ticket, and getting both a teacher and a parent signature.

There are so many rules for the exemption ticket that make it impractical. You have to get teacher signatures, but you cannot get a teacher to sign until the day of the exam. You also have to get parent signatures in order to leave the exam. It is unreasonable to have students fill out and get signatures for the exemption tickets, it would be a lot easier to have teachers with a list of people who can and cannot exempt, as it puts the responsibility on fewer people. Students don’t want to come to school for a mere fifteen minutes only to leave again.

There also wasn’t much clarity in the actual exemption process, and we have heard many different things about what is actually supposed to occur. Finals are stressful enough without the added stress of not knowing what’s going to happen.

The idea of exempting from finals is good. Students who have worked hard and gone to school should have the chance to exempt. Students who have taken an AP test should have the chance to exempt, and they do, which is great. The process to actually exempt students is difficult and confusing. We should be rewarding those who can exempt, not making their lives more difficult in the process.