Junior Elaina Brown sits in Honors Physics, going over numbers and equations in her head, waiting for the unit test to be handed out, one that she has known about for weeks.
But when she looks around at the empty seats around her, she wonders where her fellow classmates are.“These people just need to suck it up and take the freaking test [at the] right time,” Brown said.
To Brown, it makes no sense for her peers to skip class on the day of a test.
“Most of the time, because they’ve known about the test as long as everyone else has, and if they haven’t studied enough by the time of the [real] test time, then they probably won’t study enough by the time they actually take it,” she said. “And then they usually complain about having to wake up early to go to the testing center even though it was their choice to begin with.”
In a Highlander survey of 100 students, 36% admitted to skipping class on the day of a test. To some students, like Brown, this is not acceptable.
“I think [skipping a test] is super unfair to the people that do not get extra time to study,” senior Robbie Grenn said.
Senior Christy Wells agreed.
“I think it’s disrespectful to the teacher and other students,” Wells said. “Some teachers would consider it cheating.”
Ironically, 100% of students polled said they had never been disciplined by a teacher or administrator for skipping class on the day of a test.
60% of students surveyed said their parents would call them out on the day of a test.
Science teacher Renee Moore sees this issue every day.
“Some parents are willing to excuse their son or daughter, and the parents who aren’t, it’s an unexcused absence, which means the kid gets a zero,” she said. “So it all depends on if your parent will excuse you or not.”
Moore’s policy for making up tests is concrete, unless a conflict arises.
“If the student is excused, they have two days to make it up in the test make up center, unless for whatever reason there’s conflict, then they have to see me,” Moore said. “If it’s an unexcused absence, then it’s a zero.”
She is very aware that students skip class on the day of a test.
“I’ve had students that I know skipped but their parents excuse it afterwards when they found out it was the day of a test,” Moore said. “My problem is that kids don’t spend more time studying for [the test], [so] they’re better off just taking it that day.”
Junior Jake Martin agreed.
“I feel like a lot of times one more day of studying doesn’t make a huge difference, so it’s not really worth it,” Martin said. “If you plan your time well, you can always find an extra 15 to 30 minutes to study.”
While the extra time students take to study may be insignificant now, clinical psychologist Elizabeth Robbins said it could affect students’ future performance.
“Well I think that the biggest risk is [that] students won’t set and stick to a deadline,” Robbins said. “If they don’t get used to it in high school, they won’t do it in college or the work place. You could lose your job or get a bad write-up.”
In addition, Robbins said when parents call their children out, it allows the child to be coddled.
“The biggest problem is that when parents call their children out of tests, it stops the child from getting a natural consequence,” she said.
Still, some students find no harm in making a test up at a later date.
“I don’t necessarily have a feeling about [skipping a test], but I have done it numerous times,” senior John Smith* said. “I don’t find it inappropriate.”
Junior Sarah Adams* thinks skipping a test can be acceptable, depending on the situation.
“I think it depends on the circumstances,” Adams said.
“Say someone has two projects due and tons of homework on top of that and then the test. It’s understandable to miss because your [homework] load makes you incapable of studying properly. On the other hand, if it’s just a bad case of procrastination then it isn’t fair to those who worked hard and studied to be prepared on the day of the test.”
Many students just find the process of making a test up to be painful, forcing them to be prepared on the actual day of the test.
“I’m not that bad about [skipping tests] because I hate going in the next morning to take it, because then I just have to wake up even earlier,” senior Lily Cooper* said. “I’d rather just skip a day with no tests.”
