“Seniors...yup”. That was going to be the saying on the senior shirts for the class of 2009 at my school. Many of the good students thought this was a good saying for our class because no one really cared about anything.
However, I think this saying can also apply to the Class of 2008 and the Class of 2010. Why? Because I spent my junior and senior years, respectively in at least one class full of students not in the same grade with me. Although some of the seniors I was around were better at caring about their work than the juniors, the overall attitude of both grades was like my grade: lazy and indifferent. Not that many people were serious about their work (even though some were more serious than others were, the overall attitude was bad).
As a junior, I took Physics and Pre-calculus /Calculus. Both are classes usually taken by seniors—though qualified juniors also take the math class—and I think many students were struck with senioritis in the beginning of the year. The physics students, however, had a case more severe than the calculus students had.
For those of you in New York state that have taken Regents Physics know that the class is not—and should not—a blow-off class. How did half my class treat it? As a blow off class. Those students NEVER studied for unit exams and NEVER took the work seriously. This was the attitude throughout the whole year. Even after many students were accepted to college, many of them still slacked off. Did they NOT CARE that they may be putting their college acceptance decision in jeopardy if their academic performance declined drastically from their performance seen at the time of application?
The indifference of these seniors is reflected in the Regents exams results (which I found in a school report card released by the state for each high school throughout the state). According to this report, out of the 53 students that took the Physics exam, only 62% of the students actually passed the exam, receiving a score above a 65—the report also showed the percentage that scored above a 55, which I think has to do with some “low pass” option which I don’t know the details about, and about 21% scored between 55 and 64, so do the math and figure out how many people got above a 55—which is just plain sad. Just as sad is the face that only nine students scored above an 85 on the exam, which the state defines as “mastery”. Nine students. And only 62% of the students actually passed. The results from the previous school year—2006-2007—are much more pleasant in comparison, with 86% of the students passing, out of 57. I realize that physics IS hard, but the students were taught everything they needed to know for the Regents exam. I wonder how many students’ excuse for a poor performance was because of a bad teacher. Bad excuse because it is the student’s own fault for a poor performance on the exam. They simply did not care.
I don’t have much to say for my math class because, well, most of the students cared about their performance in that class. I think this had to do with the fact that some students could be earning college credit and other students still had another year of school to go.
As for my chemistry class this year…where to begin? First of all, my class was filled with several boys who did nothing but goof off and annoy the teacher. Secondly, I’m guessing around half of the class (including the senior “Liz” that I mentioned in a previous post). I’m again thinking that all those juniors settle for mediocrity and think “It doesn’t matter how I do. I’ll go to JCC [the local community college] anyway for a couple years to save money. JCC accepts anybody.” The lack of motivation annoys me. The fact that students do not care about their grades shocks me. I hope the other sections of chemistry did not act in the same way. I don’t know what the grades of the students in my class were, but I have a feeling that some grades were not that impressive, i.e. C’s and D’s. Thirdly, most of the students either did not do or did not take seriously the review assignments for the Regents exam, and the teacher knew that.
After the second review assignment (out of ten), the teacher asked how many in the class had read the review assignment. Shyly (and maybe a little embarrassedly?), I raised my hand…may be one other person does too. Annoying boy (who shall remain unnamed) says to me, “Put your hand down. You did not.” I could have made a comment back to said student, but I decided certain words should remain unspoken (and it will remain unspoken). I can’t remember what my teacher’s exact response was, but basically, we were being told if we wanted to do well on the Regents exam, we needed to work for it. I wonder how much the look-at-how-many-people-actually-read-the-review helped.
And should I say that was one of the few (maybe the only?) students that went above and beyond the required assignments. Sometimes, we were assigned just the odds or just the evens. I do the required work AND all the other questions too. I would also work on old Regents exams. At some point, I commented to my teacher that not many people were doing what I was doing and that it was their loss. Her response? “It’s your gain.” My gain it was, because I did very well on the Chemistry exam.
As for the June 2009 exam this year…some questions drove the teachers nuts because the students were missing questions they should have gotten correct. Many students did not know what an isotope was, and many did not know how to do percent composition. How many times did the teacher go over this in class? Enough for me to be very annoyed hearing the same thing over and over again. I hope my college chemistry class is not as pathetic as these juniors were.
From what I know, most students scored in the 70s and 60s…some even lower. Once the school report card comes out, I’ll find out. On a side note: everyone else in my grade who took chemistry in junior year (like they are supposed to) also had similar results to the students this year. And many of those juniors blamed their bad performance on the teachers. Again, bad excuse because the teachers taught you everything you need to know for the exam. Y’all were just lazy and didn’t study.
If you high school students keep up this attitude, they will be in for a surprise in college. Just because high school was easy does not mean you can cruise through college and expect good grades. Are your Regents exam test grades from chemistry and physics proof enough for you yet?
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