Final For APES

AP classes traditionally do not have finals, but have some type of interactive project because the huge AP tests are what we spend the year on. Studying and slaving away to prepare for, rather than a final. However, only a handful of students from Mr.Tiu's class felt prepared enough to take the AP test, which costs money to take! We did not want to invest in something we believed we would not pass. Which is arguably partially our fault for not studying independently, but there is a teacher and a class period that is dedicated to prepare and inform us of the material. So why is it that now, we are being punished for it? Mr.Tiu set up an extremely rigorous 100 question final that Mr. Arbuckle is not enforcing on HIS students. Yet, Mr.Tiu's sixth period class will have to take. We understand that each teacher instructs his class differently, but the majority of his class are seniors. If this final were to happen, it would be the last class in their high school careers. What senior wants to spend their last class taking a test? To add on to this petition, Mr.Tiu presented a field trip two weeks ago to the class. The trip was set on June 2, 2015. However, he did not state it was mandatory till the last minute and is now threatening the students who can not participate by lowering a letter grade. His argument is that it is one of the APES curriculum to do outdoor activities, but as a class we all tried immensely to convince him into doing outside projects. We should not be held accountable for not going outside, when Mr.Tiu was the one who decided to stick to book work. This being said, Our grade should not be effected on our attendance to the field trip when there are other factors that are preventing the students from going. It is finals week, there are a couple classes that are taking their finals on June 2, 2015. These students are doing the responsible thing by missing a field trip so they could complete the finals they have in other classes. This petition was also written because Mr.Tiu demanded that in order for his sixth period class to not take the final, Our Principal, Todd Whitmire, will have to write him an email excusing the class from taking the test. We are willing to do some type of project to accommodate for not doing a final, but again, Mr.Arbuckle's classes are no longer taking tests and is giving them the day off since us AP students have worked so hard this year.