By Morgan Freret & Cari Levay
Staff Writers

For the first time, finals will take place before Holiday Recess. With the new finals schedule in effect, students and faculty have mixed opinions.

Many seniors have expressed frustration with the new fi nals schedule because
it coincides with early-action and early-decision notifi cations.

"I should be getting my letter the middle of next week. But I'm not going
to open it until finals are out of the way,” senior Alison Tarbell said.

In addition, some students feel that the revised finals schedule intensifi es the
stress of college applications and long term projects.

"Instead of just finals next week, my teachers are all giving final projects for
the week before, sometimes in addition to a final exam," Alison said.

Alison said that the time she should be spending on finishing her college applications is being spent on studying for finals and finishing her final projects.

"The fact that we're losing a lot of time this semester makes it that much more stressful,” Alison said.

With the original schedule, many college applications were due in December
prior to the January finals, giving students more time to finish both applications
and to study for finals.

“It’s not so much hearing back about my early application that is stressing me
out. What scares me is that I might have to finish all my applications over break
because I spent all my time this week studying,” Alison said.

Alison is one of many students who are just now feeling the impact of the new finals schedule.

Some, like Alison, feel that the new schedule is less than satisfactory.

“I’m kind of not glad because it puts more pressure on me, and I feel like I have to hurry more and study more,” freshman Joanna Sanders said.

Many students agree that the shorter semester leads to a more stressful time before the Holiday Recess.

“I hate all the stress before Christmas. It’s really difficult because everything is crammed into such a short amount of time,” junior Sara Saadeh said.

Sophomore Wendy Ma said that even if she has less time to prepare for finals, she thinks the revised finals schedule is better because she will have a free break.

“I’m glad because I can spend the holidays being lazy. I don’t have to worry about anything. Otherwise I would have to spend the holidays really tense,” freshman Cyndhia Ramat said.

Many students are happy with the schedule despite finals this week.
“I still like it a lot,” junior Maura Darrow said.

“Now we finally get to have a real break,” Junior Daphne Owens said.

Senior Katherine Wantzelius said that she did not mind the new schedule because she was only going to study the day before finals regardless of whether it was before or after break.

Along with students, teachers are feeling the pressure of a shorter schedule. Many of the one-semester classes have been greatly impacted by the new schedule.

“I feel bad. It feels like everybody is stressed out,” Heath teacher Vickie Christensen said.

This semester, the health classes have less time for guest speakers and for the First Aid/CPR unit. Also, students have had difficulty finishing the required community service hours without the Christmas holiday, which usually provides lots of opportunities.