It is the night before finals, and all of a sudden you find yourself studying for five different classes, and staying up way later than intended. That unfortunately is what finals week could look like next week with the new unmodified finals bell schedule.
This school year, the schedule underwent numerous schedule changes negatively impacting students, and now we are facing the new finals week. Changes to the finals bell schedule were made because students are now released 10 minutes earlier every day, they have to put the lost minutes somewhere else, taking away the minimum finals days.
Before, our finals week would consist of a normal bell schedule on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday would still have a late start, a morning of 40-minute periods, then a period five final for two hours. Then Thursday and Friday had only two periods each, so students never had to study for more than two finals at a time.
Instead of getting short days to relax or study, now, it is possible that students could have all of their finals on the same day. We will have Nov. 11, the Monday of finals week off for Veteran’s Day, but then teachers have free reign to choose when to schedule finals for their classes.
For teachers, this allows for them to have more scheduling flexibility, and a grace period to grade the exams. Since grades are due at the end of the trimester the Saturday after finals, now teachers do not have to cram their grading from the tests taken the day before and instead have the option to not place any tests on Friday.
Although the extra time for grading is beneficial to teachers, students will have to space out their studying weeks prior to finals, unless they want to study for four or five finals in one night. Now teachers have to choose how to construct the final, whether to make it shorter or split it into sections and have it held over multiple days.
The old finals bell schedule, that we had for years, allowed everyone to have a break and spaced out our exams well, so no one’s plate was too full. Now, students have to balance studying for multiple exams on one night, as well as their everyday responsibilities. This change is not favored, and students should not have finals stacked on top of each other.
