Finals

As a sophomore in highschool, I've already gone through this process twice before, yet it still a hassle. This coming week, we have our final exams for the 1st semester of school. Having studied a bit for the past two days, I've realized that most of the information that I have learned over the last several months is still with me, I just had to go over it once to remember everything. However, for people that don't remember little facts and formulas for long periods of time, they have to study for hours just to recollect how to do it. My experience with the final exams is that they are generally not challenging problems, but rather a test to see how much you remember from previous chapters.

This process of finals where they strictly test how much you remember from the semester pretty much defeats the purpose, or at least I think so. If teachers actually wanted to find out how much the students have learned, they should do some sort of project that tests whether the kids have learned how to go about something. An example of this could be that for chemistry we have to do a class lab (open note) where the teacher doesn't tell you the kids what to do. My chemistry teacher actually does stuff like that, but we are also taking the normal standardized final (probably because it is required by the department).

Finally, I don't get why finals are called finals. They only happen at the end of the year 50% of the time, and even then, what are they an end to? As my 9th grade English teacher used to tell us, "The learning will continue!" By the institution calling these examinations "final" they are hinting to us students that this is the last time we will have to remember all this material. But of course, our teachers don't want us to forget anything and expect us to keep reviewing everything we have learned. My English teacher from last year also devised a way to not call them finals. Instead of preparing for finals, he tells everyone that they are to prepare for "The Grand Celebration of Learning," which truly is what these tests should be.

Movie Reviews

I can’t believe winter break is already ending, it all went by so fast. One thing that I did do over break was see a few movies in the theaters. First, I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" starring Brad Pitt. The movie was about a man who was born old and instead of getting older as he grew, he grew younger until he was a baby and died. While of course the movie was not possible, it was very interesting and a story that is very unique. Out of 5 stars, I would give this one a 4.5.

Then, the next day, I saw "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey. This was a classic Jim Carrey film much like "Liar, Liar," so if you are a Jim Carey fan, I would definitely recommend seeing it. The plot of the movie is basically that a man who turns down every offer in his life goes to a cult-like seminar where an enthusiast of Yes Men makes a covenant with him so that he would have to say yes to every opportunity that presents itself, or else he would be punished in some way. The end of the movie was a little disappointing, but I won't give it away.

Overall this one receives 3 stars for some good laughs.Outside of the theater, I saw a number of movies on DVD (I was very bored in northern Minnesota) including "Wanted," "Run Fatboy, Run," "Meet Dave," Smart People," "Cashback," and a few others that I can't really think of at the moment. Out of all of those my favorite was "Wanted" because it had some really cool action scenes a plot twist that you wouldn't see coming. The last line of the movie also was very inspirational and it went something like what "have you done lately." This movie gets a 3 out 5 as well because there were some things that were a little unreal.