A or B? Or is it C or D? Which Answer to Choose?

Why are final exams so important? Every year, every student at New Trier gets stressed about the final exams. Why do teacher count final exams for so much of your grade? These are question that i wonder about every day. Final exams happen twice a year and are a good way for teacher to know how you are understanding their class. I understand that teachers make these tests to help us and see what we have learned, but what if the student is not a good test taker? I don't think that his/her grade should be brought down by the final exam because he/she is not a good test taker.
I know that tests are hard for some people and they are really hard for me. I have never been a good test taker, so when the final exams come up, i always study really hard for them, and then i end up doing really bad on them because of my test taking skills. I think that teachers should re-think what they are doing when they either make the tests too hard, or count the final exam for too many points. I think that for the kids that are bad test takers, there should be some kind of project involved to show your teacher that you have been listening and working hard.
What do you think about the final exams and how they affect your grade at the end of a semester?

Can It Be Called "Gym-nice-tics"?

During our gymnastics season in the winter, our gymnastics team competes against many different schools. At the m

eets, each team from each school is split up into three different sub-teams. There is a Fre

shman group, a JV group, and a Varsity

 group. Each gymnast on their school team is out into one of these 3 groups and competes in that group during seaso

n. The thing that is unfair is that some of the schools that we compete against have different leotards for the different groups. This means that the Varsity group competes in a different leotard than the Freshman and JV group. I think that it is unfair to make the groups have different leotards because then it makes the gymnasts on the lower groups, JV or Freshman, feel like they are bad or not good enough for the Varsity leotard.

On our team, everyone has the same leotard when we compete. I like this better because then no one feels left out or "little" compared to the Varsity girls. On a team that we competed against last year, the Varsity girls wore different leotards than the Freshman and JV girls. I thought that this was very unfair because if i was on that team, and i didn't make Varsity, I would feel left out because I had a different leotard. 

What do you think about the gymnasts having different leotards to compete in is some are better and some are not?

Knocked Down to Silver Medal

Nastia Liukin, the all-around American gymnast, had even finals on the uneven bars. She performed a flawless routine and had only one noticeable mistake during her routine. On the other hand, her competitor, He Kexim, won the bronze all-around gymnastics medal. She was up on bars competing against Nastia. He performed her routine and there were some obvious errors throughout that I noticed. When judging came around, He and Nastia received the same score for the uneven bars in event finals. The new rules for the Olympics said that there can be no ties for medals. So the judges had to pick a winner for gold and a winner for silver. The judges approved He for the gold medal and silver for Nastia. This seemed like an unfair judgement.
I know a lot about gymnastics and love the sport. When I was watching these olympic event finals, I thought that Nastia performed a better and cleaner routine compared to He Kexim. Nastia performed a beautiful routine and stuck her landing, which means that she did not stumble at all. She had a great routine and the only mistake that i saw was her legs splitting. When I watched He's routine, she had a lot more obvious errors such as not having her toes pointed the whole time and separating her legs several times. Also, on He's dismount, she stumbled a bit and still awarded the same score as Nastia.
I think that the judges made a mistake of giving the gold to He because Nastia obviously had a better routine. Since the Chinese were in their home country, many people think that He won the gold because of favor and not skill. I agree with this. Since the Chinese were in their home country, i think that there was a little favor towards her so that she could show her home country that she won a gold medal. This was very unfair to Nastia and i think that she should have won the uneven bars event finals.

Do you think that Nastia deserved the silver?

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Tumble and Roll: The Real Deal





This year in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Chinese Olympic girls were said to be underage for the Olympics. Look at the picture above. Do these girls look like they are 16 years old? I don't think so. Many people are saying that these girls are too young to compete in the Olympics. The Chinese officials gave the New York Times the girl's passports to show their real age, and on the passports, the ages of the girls said 16. The thing that is unfair to the other competitors is that younger gymnasts are lighter and smaller and have an easier time doing some of the hard skills. They say that younger girls are more fearless and not as afraid to preform in front of a big audience. Two online records were found from the people of the New York Times saying that one of the Chinese girls, He Kexin, was born on January 1, 1994, which would make her 14 years old and too young to compete in the Olympics! I think that it is very unfair to the other olympians because if these girls are younger than they are supposed to be, they have less fear, so they are willing to do harder tricks. As i was talking to someone about this, they said that the Chinese girls that competed in Worlds, were listed to be 12 or 13 years old. I understant that these girls really wanted to compete in the Olympics and obviously their coaches wanted them to, but they shouldnt compete unless they are old enough. This is a hard thing to deal with because the Olympics have already finished and the medals were already given out. And for the All Around medals, the bronze medal was given to a Chinese gymnast who is shown to be 14 years old. I agree with the New York times saying that these girls are too young to compete in the Olympics. The real olympic age is 16 years old, and it is unfair to the other girls competing if they are all 16 years or older because they had to wait until they were 16 to compete, even if they were ready before that. There is really nothing to do about it now because everything is over and done with, but for the Chinese people to change these girls' ages on their passports is very unjust to all the other Olympic gymnasts.




Information: New York Times


How old does this gymnast look?