It’s (almost) over: for these students the final exams are different than usual

In her senior year, 15-year-old Whitney* has gone through many changes. Last summer she came to live in Den Helder from South Holland. Due to domestic violence in her family, she lived for nine months with her mother and two brothers in a sheltered home. Just two weeks before final exams, the family received the keys to a new home. They are now busy painting and decorating.

“The transition from my old school to my new one in Den Helder was especially difficult. I had been at school there for three years, I knew how it worked and I didn’t know anyone here. And there were already groups here. Slowly I joined formed a group. It was difficult to start again, but I’m glad it happened and that I can take my rest here.”

Rhythm

Although she quickly got used to the shelter, she found the move to yet another house difficult. “I had just created a certain rhythm – with a place where I could learn, knew the environment and then it changed again. And just before the exams.”

Still, she thinks she did well on the exams. “If I had prepared better, I might have had better results. But I do think I will succeed.” After secondary school she wants to start the vocational training for a specialized pedagogical employee in Schagen.

For the second time, 17-year-old Mare van Loo from Den Helder can obtain a diploma, but she is now taking the exam for the first time. If corona had not come in between, she could already have taken her final exam for the mavo in 2020. However, then all final exams were canceled and the students were awarded a diploma based on their already obtained results in the school exams. Now she gets a second chance, when she takes her final exam for HAVO.

“It was very unclear at the time. In March they said there might be no final exams and it was finally announced in April. But we would still have test weeks, and then they were canceled either. Every time I had learned, without I had really worked hard to keep my grades up to scratch, of course.”

too young

After she obtained her mavo diploma, she decided to continue studying for the havo. “I couldn’t find a nice MBO study and at fifteen I also thought I was too young to start studying.” She thinks her exams went well. “Of course I didn’t know what to expect in advance. The first day was tough. Everything went well. And once you’ve handed it in, you can’t change it anymore. You can’t do more than your best.” After the summer, she wants to start a higher professional education course in creative business at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam.

The 16-year-old Amber Schoenmakers from Den Helder had little sense this year to complete her pre-vocational secondary education. “I found a lot of what I had to learn very easy, so I had little motivation to go to school. I skipped many classes and I was barely at school.” That could no longer be the case, so something else was devised especially for Amber.

As the only pre-vocational secondary education student, she was placed in a class with basic pre-vocational secondary education students and she started a work-study trajectory. She did an internship at a company for three days and only went to school for two more days. And that turned out to be a hit. Now she seems to be succeeding.

Light and sound

“In the hours I was at school, I only had Dutch and math, the rest I learned in practice.” She was able to work for a light and sound company in Den Helder that builds festivals. There she learned about loudspeakers, lighting equipment and how to fix it.

On 3 June she has her Dutch exam. After the summer she wants to start the service employee vocational training in Schagen. “My internship company remains the same. I want to continue working there and later, when I’m done and older, I hope to be able to take over the company.”

On Wednesday Tyrell George (16) from Den Helder had his last exam, English. He wasn’t worried about it at all. “It’s pretty much my native language. I speak it a lot.” Tyrell has more talents: he taught himself to play the piano. “I’ve never had a lesson and I don’t read music. I don’t think it’s a wonder of the world, but I was praised for it at school.”

In the first year he got the subject of music and then he also started playing the piano. Not very surprising when you know that his grandfather had an organ in his house and was a conductor in a church. “I practiced on my grandfather’s organ until I had my own piano.” He doesn’t want to teach. “I’m too stubborn for it.”

He seems to be one of the few students who will pass HAVO at Scholen aan Zee in one go. Special, since the school a few years ago underperformed and especially the havo was below par. “It is therefore special for our school that I, as one of the few HAVO students, will probably pass in one go, without resits.”

navy

It did cross his mind for a while to go to the conservatory, but Tyrell takes a completely different direction with his studies. “I want to work in the navy and I will follow the mechatronics training there. My father and grandfather also served in the navy. They have not gotten any worse and I think it would be fun to sail on a ship.”

Due to chronic pain in her foot, which she has suffered from since she was ten, it was not physically possible for 19-year-old Flok Heijkoop from Den Helder to do all final exams with her classmates last year. It was therefore decided to stagger her exams. She already took her final exams for some of the subjects in 2021, the other part she did this year.

“My ankle was already a weak spot, but after I fell in Italy the pain has never stopped. Last year I hardly had any pain, but before that I had a lot of pain. Especially in winter and especially in winter from 2020/2021.” Due to the complaints she had already missed a lot from vwo-5 and in order to both catch up and to ensure that she could pass her final exams, it was therefore decided to spread her exams.

“I am very happy that this was possible. I used to be a lot behind; the information did not stick with me because of the pain, my schedule was shortened and I often dropped out during exam weeks. Because I only had to take four courses this year, I was physically better for me.”

Chemistry

The exams themselves are also staggered, so that she does not have everything in one week. In the first period she only took exams in chemistry and mathematics, in the second period she took physics and English. She expects to succeed. After the summer she wants to start studying chemistry, a joint degree at the Free University and the University of Amsterdam.