By: Daniela Zavlun and Nataniela Zavlun, staff writers
On Tuesday, sophomores took the Global Regents exam – at a surprisingly early time this year. In previous years, the test was administered either on June 14 or 15. However, this year students took a new format for the test called the Transition Regents Examination in Global History and Geography. In previous years, the test consisted of 50 multiple choice questions as well as two essays: a thematic essay and document based essay. However, the new test this year has been narrowed down to only 30 multiple choice questions, which will account for 55% of the student’s test score. In addition, the new exam will only focus on topics after the 1500s. This new test requires students to apply only the knowledge they learned in 10th grade. This is the first year the transition test will be administered, and it will continue to be administered until June 2020.
The Department of Education explained, in a letter to all NYC public schools, the reason for such an early testing date. The DOE commented, “Because this is a new examination, this additional time is necessary so that a score collection can be conducted for this new examination and the conversion chart can be made available no later than June 22, 2018, the second of the two rating days.”
“They (the DOE) really don’t know what’s gonna happen once people start taking and grading this new exam, so I think they’re giving some extra time for themselves to accommodate any mistakes,” said Assistant Principal and Director of Humanities Rafal Olechowski. He continued to say that although the new format of the exam now only requires one year of study, this should not affect the teachers’ schedules and the course will still be taught for two years, as this school’s goal is not merely to prepare for the regents, but to become more knowledgeable as a whole and, at the same time, be more prepared for the AP test.
Students have mixed responses to the new exam. Sophomore Melina Kostopoulos said, “I feel like I’m prepared because I took the AP test and studied for it. I feel like the further this exam date is from the AP test the harder it is to study all over again, the closer it is to the AP test the more I remember the information that I studied.”
On the other hand, sophomore Faye Shemper pointed out, “As far as I’m concerned, cutting 50 multiple choice questions to 30 certainly makes each question worth more. I’m not sure if I should rejoice at the decreased work or worry about the weight of each question.” Nevertheless, most sophomores agree that they are prepared to take the test this year despite the changes and the earlier date.
