The air is chill; there are only two weeks before winter break and the end of the semester is near for Lakota Students. Typically around this time of year, we would start hearing the panic in students’ voices and the constant reminder of teachers of the upcoming semester exams. However, this is 2020, and nothing is really “normal” anymore. At the start of December, it was announced that students at Lakota school districts will not be taking the dreaded semester exams that count as ten percent of their final grade for the quarter. 

For most, if not almost all students including myself, exams being canceled is a wonderful thing to hear. Especially if you are senior this year, and don’t have to worry about the second semester exams. However, let’s look at this from a different perspective. As much as we all hate these exams, think about how they prepare you for college and how they affect your study skills. For seniors, such as myself, we haven’t had to take a semester exam since the first semester of junior year, which now feels like such a long time ago. We just  haven’t practiced our study skills over such a large variety of subjects in almost a year. 

I decided to look into the cancelation deeper. I spoke with Principal of Lakota West High School, Ben Brown, to try and figure out how the decision was made to cancel the first semester tests and what the plan was moving forward. Basically, it came down to all the disruptions from the start of the school year. With all the students being quarantined, especially the students that were quarantined more than once and falling behind in the curriculum, how can you be expected to take an exam over the things you missed? This was really the thought process that contributed the most to the cancelation. 

Moving forward tinto the next semester, how might the next tests be dealt with? The answer to that is, there is no answer. They don’t know exactly what is to come for the future of students. So far all we know is that students are having a staggered start at the beginning. According to Ben Brown he says that the district is hopeful for the next semester and are working hard for students to make next semester as “normal” as possible.