The five end-of-course exams — Civics, U.S. history, Biology, Algebra 1 and Geometry — will be taken between Nov. 30 and Dec. 18  despite pandemic conditions and block scheduling. This has made preparations for the test different.

“In Geometry Honors, [I] have to cover double the number of sections per day, in order to cover all of the material by the beginning of December,” teacher Donald Gornto said. “Since I am covering two lessons per day, I can not give the same amount of homework that I would normally give, so I have to give less homework per night.  So the students get less practice.”

Gornto also said he prefers the normal seven-class schedule to block scheduling.

“I think the West Shore students will do well compared to students from other schools, but I think that they will be less prepared than previous years,” he said. “The accelerated pace of block scheduling and e-learning has really made things tough for students. We also have the EOC in December rather than May, which leaves very little time for review.”

Geometry Honors student Kiley Wallace (9) shares some of her teacher’s concerns.

“I feel pretty nervous for the geometry exam,” she said. “I prefer 60-minute classes because it seemed less stressful. Even if I have only four classes at a time, we have to cram in so much in such little time.”

By Erin Kohler