8th Grade Final Exam

It's been a while.  But I feel the end of the year is like that.  I'm not really going over anything new, we're just reviewing everything we've already done.  And then there are a lot of activities and meetings towards the end of the year.

Does anyone else feel like the end of the year is both a drag (still 3 more weeks left??) and a sprint to the finish (only 3 more weeks left??)?

Today my eighth graders took their final exam.  My first class left me very pleased with the results.  More than half the class received A's and B's.  That's awesome.  I don't give easy tests and I expect a lot.  So I was very pleased.

My second class was not as good. Only one kid passed, and he passed with a 95%.  How can there be that much difference?  This class is hard to control, they're often yelling at each other, and don't always try their best.  Even during the exam they were asking why they couldn't take notes (um, you don't even have any??) because "all" of the other classes let them use notes.  Well, looking from experience, I've never let you use notes on a test, so why would I let you use notes now?  I want to see how much you have learned, not how well you can take and read your notes.  Needless to say this second period was difficult and hard.  I don't think I'm entirely to blame, but I do have a lot of notes on how I'm going to improve next year.

After all, I'm a brand new teacher.  There is much room for improvement.

Here's my copy of the eighth grade exam.  I was quite pleased with it.  :)

How well would you do on an eighth grade science test?