The final exams are about to start and that means a lot of tense faces. Also among the students of Dr. Nassau College in Assen.
Tomorrow, pre-vocational secondary education students throughout the Netherlands will start with mathematics. HAVO students start with the Philosophy and Dutch exams. The subjects Art and Business Economics are planned for pre-university education students.
After weeks of learning, it really starts and that is exciting, says Noah van der Haring (16). He is taking his HAVO exam. “Especially the stress beforehand. The learning. The amount of time you spend on it. That makes it exciting.”
The five students mainly use mock exams to practice, but they all have subjects that they dread. For VWO exam student Kyan van Riessen (16), this is Dutch.
“In Dutch, very vague questions are asked, then you have to reason what the answer could be. Then you have to hope that you write down what they would like to know,” he says.
Darren Smit (18) agrees. Pre-university education students are good at subjects such as mathematics and economics, but subjects where reading comprehension must be applied are more difficult.
The final exams contain many appendices that must be read. “Especially in business economics: ten sources of information in total. Then I have to read carefully and sharply,” says Smit. His tactic: “I let it happen to me.”
For high school student Eveline Bolt (19), it is the subjects mathematics and biology that require some extra attention. “I don’t necessarily find biology difficult, but it is a lot. You have to understand mathematics to be able to take the test and that is a big thing. I understand the individual parts, but as soon as it comes together I think: what does that mean?”
For the next three weeks, students must fully concentrate on the exams. In June they hope for that call with the message that they have passed.
“Then it will be one big party, I think,” laughs Sem Bartelds (18). An exam trip? He doesn’t know that yet. “We’ve already talked about it with friends, so maybe it will happen.”