The Hawthorne High School administration has made some revisions to the usual midterm exam schedule, which will take place this 2012-13 school year. Instead of scheduling the midterms exams during the regular school day, HHS will now give the exams during an “open campus” half-day schedule. This means that students will be required to come in to school to take their exam and will then be permitted to leave. Each class will have a two-hour exam and students are required to stay that entire time, even if they finish early. The cafeteria will continue to serve breakfast in the morning and snacks in between exam sessions.

This year, midterms will begin on Tuesday, January 15, and finish on Friday, January 18. All students have been given their exam schedule. On Tuesday, students will take their exam for the classes they have periods 1 and 5, on Wednesday for periods 2 and 6, on Thursday for periods 3 and 7, and on Friday for periods 8 and 4. When the exam period is a student’s lunch period, that student does not have to be in school. Because students taking the same course in different periods, teachers will make a different exam for each period class. For senior students to be exempt from any of their finals in June, they must receive a 90 or above on their midterm exam.

In previous years, the midterm counted only as two test grades in the second marking period, while the final exam counted as 20 percent of a student’s final year grade. With the new midterm exams, both the midterm and final exam will count for 10 percent of a student’s final grade.

When asked why it was decided to change the midterm schedule, HHS principal, Barry Cohen said, “From listening to feedback from students and teachers, they felt that having the final be 20 percent of the final grade was too much and created a burden for students.” He also added that the new midterm schedule will have a “true testing environment” for students.