Again we are reminding students to be ready for finals which happen not this week but the following week. We know many members of the state team have been both preparing for the tournament as well as finals over the Holidays. We are fortunate this year in that finals are later in the schedule. There have been years we have had to work with teachers to take finals on a different schedule because of the tournament.
If you are a novice in the program here is what we are asking:
1). Notify coaches if you are in serious trouble in a class--do it Monday or Tuesday and not later. No surprises here--be honest. If you think you have an issue with parents and grades--have that talk with them NOW. Be proactive.
2). Determine which grades are solid-not likely to be changed by a final exam. Many finals are only worth a reasonable amount of your overall grade--say 20%. You need to know what each final is worth. If you don't know and can't determine from Infinite Campus--ASK!
3). Determine which grades could change based on the final--either up or down-- and focus your efforts on those finals. The truth is that most students do not change their semester grade based on a final exam unless their grade was borderline between two marks. Few students BOMB finals and as a result flunk a class. Parents of new students in high school worry about that--but that is not the high school system as a rule of thumb.
4). Be sure all your work is in..do this ASAP. For example, I checked 10 students at random over the Holidays and found 4 examples of grades not posted that should have been. I called each student--two of them were unaware of the issue and two knew exactly what I was concerned about. Waiting till after the semester to clean up a teachers grade book (protesting something was turned in, etc) is too late. Get it done now.
5). While there is practice next week at 2:30 each day...we don't expect to see you if you need study time. Simply let us know your plans so we can prepare for those we will have in practice next week. If you can be in a few times great!
All of the above noted: It would appear our students are entering finals in solid shape and some with opportunities to maximize grades. Having coached through something like 15 sets of finals, the above is based on experience. The most important part of finals is staying healthy, getting sleep and not stressing yourself to the point that you are hurting yourself.
