Joud Al-Amri Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Many school students are no longer intimidated by final examinations. They have decided that these exams will not make any difference in their life if they pass or flunk them. So why should they spend so many sleepless nights burning the candle at both ends when at the end of the day getting a low or a high grade would not change anything in their life? This phenomenon does not apply to those in their final high school year. Those students have to study hard because they know that the results of the exams will determine their future prospects. Parents with sons or daughters in junior school years worry about their children's low performance at school. So many students these days spend long hours before the exams wasting away their time watching TV or surfing the Internet or doing anything but studying and preparing for exams. Most students who spoke with Saudi Gazette agree that the final exams of the final high school year are very important and should not be taken lightly. This juncture of their life deserves, in their opinion, more efforts and sleepless nights and worth going the extra mile. Jomana, 12, says she does not spend so much time studying and preparing for final exams. “Why should I spend long hours cramming information I am not going to use in my daily life at the end of the day?” She believes that the only period of time that a student should work hard and prepare for final exams is the final year of high school. “When someone hires you, they are going to look at the grades you achieved in the final year of high school,” she said. “They would care less about your performance in the preceding years.” Jomana does not consider herself as lazy or careless. She considers her performance in school as good. Muhammad Al-Ghamdi, 10, believes that final exams are given more attention and importance than they deserve. In his opinion, “exams are a criteria used by teachers to decide whether a student should be promoted to the next grade or not, nothing more and nothing less.” Al-Ghamdi does not aspire to become an engineer or doctor; therefore, he is not worried about his grade point average. One of the mothers Saudi Gazette met said she has six children and she has a difficult time trying to persuade them to study. “I feel like kids don't care about school as they used to do. I'm literally begging my kids to sit and study. “I'm surprised that their elder siblings do not encourage them to study hard. On the contrary, they tell them not to break a sweat now and save it for the high school final year.” Surprisingly some college students said they do not worry about getting a high GPA at college. They just want to pass final exams and graduate. The reason behind this attitude is that they are not studying to be doctors or engineers. Getting a college diploma, regardless of their GPA, is what matters to them the most.
