Quizzams come to an end

Posted by ivy dunn on Apr 30, 2012 in Telegram Past News

If you have ever talked to any AP Biology student about how hard the class is, most of them probably said that it is somewhat of a challenge. AP Biology is a rigorous course full of nonstop reading, labs, and tests. It requires a lot of hard work from students, and it is definitely not an easy task.

Every class and teacher has a different way of grading. Some teachers add up all of the assignment points and divide that by the total amount of points that the student earned. Some teachers, however, make different categories worth different percentages. For example, in Mrs. West’s AP biology class, tests and quizzams are worth 45 percent of a student’s overall grade. So, almost half of your total grade is based on assessments. Quizzams account for 20 percent, Unit Exams account for 35 percent, Labs are worth 35 percent, and Classwork is worth 10 percent. This means that students really need to study hard for their unit tests, and surprisingly enough, their quizzams that are only worth 20 percent of their grade.

You may be thinking, well, what is a quizzam? Basically, it is just a small quiz. Mrs. West decides to give it an extra “zam” for her own reasons. It is a multiple choice test based on a small section of reading that usually consists of between 7 to 20 questions, depending on the length of a given section. The job of a quizzam is to keep students up on their reading. There are usually between 2 and 3 quizzams per unit, and they take place before the final Unit Exam. So, students read their assigned section, get a few quizzams, and then their unit test at the end. If quizzams did not exist, students would most likely procrastinate until the night before the Unit Exam to read everything that they were supposed to have read, so these little quizzes really do help.

On Thursday, April 26 2012, 5th and 3rd period AP biology classes took their last quizzam ever. Seeing as the big AP test is coming up in about 2 weeks, it is time to start reviewing more for that, rather than take more tests in the class itself. Since quizzams have been consistent throughout the school year, this was a very happy day for many AP students. I found out how they felt about this.

Will Staiger is a Junior in 5th period AP biology. “A quizzam is a combination of a quiz and a sam,” he said. “They aren’t particularly hard, but they are if you don’t study for them.” He thinks that they are very important to your grade, and he is very happy that he is done taking quizzams.

Shannon Miner, another AP Biology student who just received a 10 out of 10 on her last quizzam, said that they keep you on track with your reading. She seemed very excited about getting 100 percent on her last quizzam, since that will bring her grade up.

Bryan Poole is in 3rd period AP biology and he thinks that they are very important for your grade.”I try to read the sections,” he said. “But if I don’t have time then I look off of other people’s study guides.”

Overall, many students are very happy that their streak of quizzams is over, and hopefully their year of quizzam taking went well.