It’s the start of the 2021-2022 school year and the students are back to learning in the building. As students take their first steps back into school, they are hit with a wave of nerves and excitement. For the majority of the students, they are taking their first ever steps into this environment that they were once used to, but are now unfamiliar with.

For the past two years, students have been participating in school remotely, which also means they have not taken a test on paper in a long time. Tests that were given during the 2020 school year were much different than the paper tests students have been taking their whole lives. Since most students were participating remotely, there were many students who passed tests with external internet support (whether or not their teachers explicitly allowed it). Because of the situation last year, teachers were forced to make almost every test open notes, since students could easily just look at their notes or google an answer they were unsure of. The return of paper tests this year is putting students who solely relied on the open notes computer assessments to the test. However, these students will rise to the challenge.