Final Exams

I have several students who took a bit of a mental vacation during the first semester. Suddenly, they've realized that they are in real danger of having to repeat at LEAST one semester of the course, so they are very interested in learning as much as possible now, as if a passing grade on the final exam will be enough to recover from two grading periods of failing grades. Yesterday was the first day of finals, and we had a full day of school with a modified schedule to allow for extra time in the two periods that would take exams. One of my recently returned mental vacationers came by my room EVERY period to ask more questions. This "student" had been telling me all week that he would be staying after for tutoring and then he never showed up. When I'd question him about it, he always said "Oh, I had to leave." Then he expected me to ignore the rest of my classes to give him extra help.

His exam was at the end of this modified day. About 15 minutes in, he asked to be excused because he felt sick. I believe he actually worried himself sick over the test!!!!!

We have three more days of nothing but exams, and all three are half days, before the Christmas break (oops, I mean winter break).