At South Lakes, the opportunity to retake tests is provided when students score below 80%. This allows students to improve both their grade and their overall knowledge on the subject. While this may be beneficial, some teachers worry that some students may overly rely on this. They are concerned that students are retaking too many tests, and not taking the original test seriously.
In 2016, FCPS approved a new policy where students had the opportunity to retake tests when scoring below an 80%. After eight years of this, the process is a regular part of testing at South Lakes. All high school students in FCPS are used to this method, but specific details of the retake process vary slightly from school to school.
With the number of students retaking tests at South Lakes, teachers decided to set up a place where students can go to retake their tests.
“We all have the option to use the retake center.” Ms. Welch, a Geometry teacher, said. Different teachers take turns working the retake center. “[That way] you can focus on helping a kid instead of monitoring retakes [all the time].”
Most classes require a review before the scheduled retake. In math, teachers require test corrections along with a review, which students must score a certain percentage on, before the retake. However, in other departments, teachers work with students to simply schedule their retake. They don’t need the same amount of organization as the math teachers do.
In recent years, math teachers have begun to worry that students rely too much on retakes, not taking the actual test seriously. To combat this, teachers changed the difficulty of the retakes.
“We tend to make the retakes slightly harder so it is not an incentive to see what’s on the test…and just do a retake.” Welch said.
The difficulty ensures that the retake is fair and as challenging as the original test. It is meant to be seen as a second chance, not an easy way out of a bad test grade.
Students may struggle with retaking tests as each subject and teacher have slightly different methods and processes. Like teachers, students also have their own views on retakes and the process as a whole.
“I think that there are too many assignments that you need to do in order to do a retake.” Emma Ayres, a 9th grader, said.
Many students want to retake tests, but don’t go through with it due to all the steps involved. Doing corrections along with a review of the unit can take some time, especially on top of a student’s workload.
“If a student is going through the effort of retaking a test, they shouldn’t have to jump through a ton of hoops.” Emma added.
Retakes can be both beneficial and harmful to students. It depends on how the student uses the opportunity to retake. Learning from past mistakes is different from relying on retakes to boost grades. It is good to have the opportunity to improve, but students should make sure they prepare well for the first test in order to not have to retake at all.
