Along with the excitement at the end of the school year comes the anxiety associated with standardized testing, especially for the Keystone Exams. Taken by students in algebra, biology, and English classes, the Keystones must be passed to graduate high school. 

According to Lancaster Online, the decision to administer the Keystones for the 2020-2021 school year was not taken very well by school officials. Some argued that holding such an exam during a turbulent year would be a misstep. 

Sophomore Sophia Godfrey, who will be taking the biology exam and English exam, agrees. “I personally think [the exams] should be canceled because I just don’t feel like it’s fair to put students through [a standardized test],” she said. 

Lancaster Online also reported that Senators Scott Martin and Lindsey Williams sent a letter to the Biden administration on February 24. In the letter, they ask that the administration drop the obligation that schools give standardized tests in the 2020-2021 school year due to the pandemic. 

Sophomore Peyton Schrader will be taking the biology exam and English exam as well. She said that the exams must happen at some point. “If we keep canceling everything, what’s going to happen when we go back to normal?” she said. “We’re all going to have to snap back into regular life.”

This year’s increase in open-note tests is also a source of concern for students’ performance on the Keystone exams. Like other standardized tests, the Keystones are strictly closed-note. 

Sophomore Michaella Neidermyer is especially uneasy about this factor. “I haven’t actually retained any information because I haven’t had to,” she said. 

Not only will Neidermyer be taking the biology exam and English exam, but also the AP World History exam. Although she said she is putting the AP exam above everything else, Neidermyer says the Keystones should go on as scheduled because rescheduling would mean a longer period of reviewing and recalling information. 

Another source of concern regarding the Keystone exams is the requirement of online students taking the exams to report to the high school to take the test in-person. 

As an online student, Godfrey addressed the possible issues for online students taking the Keystones. “If people at home have to go in, that makes it more stressful for those people, because they’re not used to having to go into the [high school],” she said. Godfrey said that a student’s performance on the exam could be affected by this.

Despite the challenges that students will face while taking the Keystone exams, Schrader finds the exams as a source of normalcy in a very unpredictable school year. “You have to keep [the Keystones] so you have structure in school, and you have normal expectations of what you have to do,” she said.