Photo source: Mikael Miettinen
No homework. No tests. No staying up on the Sunday before school starts wishing you had studied. This year, over the three-week long break, we could binge watch Netflix for hours and hours without the guilt of studying for final exams. The new schedule for the 2014-2015 school year, with finals before break, allowed us to do so without shame.
However, many students felt that they did not receive full advantage of the review days. For many classes, these review days were cut short in order to complete the curriculum. According to Annika S. (’16), “Teachers were definitely teaching new material up to finals week.” One review day got canceled due to heavy rains. Therefore, review felt extremely rushed in several classes. In the past, the school day before finals was optional for upperclassmen, but with the limited time this year, many teachers requested for their students to attend class.
What about teachers? Were they stressed? Usually teachers have the opportunity to write their finals over break, and according to Lori Herbert, member of the Tech team, “Finals is definitely stressful for the students, but also the teachers who were caught by surprise by the limited amount of time.” So don’t worry, the teachers also experienced the same time crunch. Even though it may seem as if we were crammed on time, we actually had the same amount of days of school as in previous years.
All in all, there is something nice about starting a new year with a clean academic slate. Shaan E. (’17) even noticed a perk. “I got to make fun of all of my friends who had finals in January,” he said. Even though the year is not over, having break before finals gave us a taste of this new schedule. And so far, it looks like we will be doing the same thing for the next academic school year.