Academy may seem to have unbelievably high standards for end of the year policies for seniors but compared to other schools they aren’t so bad. They may seem this way for a few reasons. One, seniors are increasingly losing motivation as each day passes which makes it harder to maintain the exemption grade. Another could be that we haven’t compared the policies to other high schools in the area. Julia Metzger shares her opinion stating, “even though it is tempting to give into senioritis the privilege to exempt exams has motivated me to keep my grades up.”

Although Jesuit High School only has to maintain a B average during second semester to exempt exams, they are stuck in school longer than Academy. They may have the exemption grade, but if they miss a class more than seven times they must forfeit their exemption privilege. Jesuit senior, Jensen Diaz shares his feelings about senior year ” It hard to miss class less than seven times but I really don’t want to take exams.”

Tampa Prep and Academy seniors get out of school just one day after each other; however, Tampa Preparatory seniors are required to do an internship for a few weeks in May. Academy seniors last day is April 30 and the only responsibilities they have are showing up to senior events and the practices for them. Natalie Galdos, Senior at Tampa Prep explains, “we get out of school May 1 but after [that day] we have to do internships until graduation. The internship can be anything you want! Some people work at the zoo and some people work on the newspaper.” The overall purpose of the internship is to prepare the seniors to experience the careers they’re interested in, and if it is truly what they want.

Senior English teacher, Mrs. Frazier shares her opinion on AHN’s senior exam privilege exclaiming ” I believe that seniors deserve the perk of exempting exams at the end of their courses if they have worked hard during the semester to maintain a good grade. It helps keep students motivated to do their best work all year long, despite college acceptances and senioritis.”

While Academy requirements may seem a bit overwhelming, hard work pays off when you can exempt exams! It also helps when considering other schools requirements . We get out earlier than Jesuit and Tampa Prep and we aren’t reauired to do an internship!