At first, you could retake any tests as many times as you wanted to achieve up to any score that you desired; now you can only retake an exam up to 80%. Since the start of the 2025-2026 school year, the retake policy has been a frustrating setback in achieving goals and it has also created a dent in the actual purpose of a retake.

I often look back at the times in my freshman year of high school where I could retake ANY test up to a 100%. I wish I could have relished how good of a time I was living in, and not have taken it for granted. When sophomore year hit, I was stunned to find out that if I didn’t get the score I hoped to achieve on a test, I wouldn’t be allowed to retake it for up to 100%, only to 80%.

The point of a retake in my book is to do better on a test that you might not have done to the best of your ability. The retake policy here at DGS diminishes the point of a retake because it doesn’t allow you to reach the score that you actually worked to achieve the second time around. Instead of rewarding you for your efforts, it cuts you off.

Being a high achieving student, I was outraged to find this out because in my mind, an 80% is not worth retaking for. I complained to my parents and friends about my anger about how if I got a lower grade than I wanted, I would be forced to just deal with it, and let it drag my grade down. It felt as though I had been betrayed by my school; it felt like they didn’t want us to reach our full potential.

When the school implemented this new policy, my stress levels started going through the roof. I had already been doing my assignments on time and completely, along with studying as hard for my exams as I could, but now with that extra stress factor involved, I was a mess of papers and ten thousand tabs. The reality was that if I failed, I failed, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Some people might argue that you should have just done better the first time around, and then you wouldn’t have to deal with retaking the test and suffering its consequences. But, in reality school is just one of the many things going on in someone’s life; you don’t know what’s going on outside of school such as sports, family and underlying health issues, so it isn’t fair to implement a rule that has an underlying negative factor of how you should have just done better the first time. You should be able to reach your full potential, and not be setback by a rule only allowing you to get a B-.

Studies have shown that when students retake a test or quiz, their scores are increasingly higher than the first time around, and in result have shown increased motivation for the more tests to come. The bottom line is that if we give students a chance to redeem themselves and provide them with an opportunity to study more effectively, they are more likely to do better on future exams.

With the 2025-2026 school year still in full throttle, it doesn’t look to be changing for the better or for the worse. That isn’t to say it will never change, but for now the rule is here to stay.

To read about the initial implementation of the retake policy, click here.