Finals have changed many times throughout the recent years. With the newest changes, that started in January 2023, there are no longer mental health days. From now on, students will only be able to miss 3 excused days, as passing more than 3 excused days a student would have to take finals. 

The younger students did not receive the same experience of taking finals as the older students did, as finals ultimately changed due to the pandemic of COVID-19. Mrs. Torbeck stated, “During quarantine finals were no longer based on attendance.” Due to the lack of incentives and online schooling, in-person attendance dropped. Now, HHS is finally switching back to the way finals used to be before the pandemic in order to boost attendance rates.

The Class of 2023 has dealt with many changes throughout the years, one of the biggest being finals. Leyten Earl, on the topic of finals before the January 2023 changes said that he prefers it over the new changes being made. He said, “Teachers [were] more lenient but they [were] still challenging us with the finals.” Leyten Earl shared that his first time taking finals was “very intimidating at first,” as there were, “a lot of questions and…it was kind of overwhelming.”

Finals and the new way of doing things can be challenging and intimidating at first, but once you get used to them they don’t feel new at all.