The first trimester treated finals week like a normal week. Students had the same classes every day that they normally would. Students liked the new finals schedule more than the first trimester because of the multiple complaints and outcomes. Students and teachers complained about the first trimester’s finals schedule, as people ended up having over three finals in just one day. It was a struggle for the students to study for all of their classes before the test, and not be able to focus on one or two classes at a time. For some, these being put together led to worse grades. With the second-trimester finals schedule, students had the period five final on Wednesday after attending class all day. On Thursday, students had their period one for an hour then a break, then their final for two hours. Then students took their period two final after another hour-long class period. Friday repeated the Thursday schedule with periods three and four classes and finals.

Students liked this schedule a lot more than the first trimester. There was less stress overall during the second trimester since they were not taking over three finals in a day. But, they still miss last year’s schedule and have minimal days. 

Every school year before this one, Poway High School had minimum days every finals week. This gave students more time to study for finals, but also gave teachers more time to grade the finals. The three hours that were given were not fair for some students because some people had to take a test for all three hours, because these hours were not defined clearly enough. The minimum days were taken away in order to meet the state’s minutes requirements after school days were shortened by 10 minutes last year. Administrators and other school leaders are still deciding what this trimester’s finals schedule is going to look like but it should be different than second and first trimesters.

I agree with other students and believe that we should figure out a way to get our minimum days back.