School calendar affects finals

Soledad Lee Business Manager

Sam Klein Podcast Editor

First semester finals take place the week before winter break. This year winter break started on Dec. 22.

Some teachers posted grades the day their finals were taken, while others waited until grades were due. This left students wondering what their final grade would be in each of those classes and how it would affect their GPA.

About when she thought grades should be posted, junior Ruby Coalier said, “I think before break because it adds unnecessary stress throughout break and going into second semester. I feel like it should be a clean slate cuz I found out two of my final grades once I got back.”

Skylar Moore, junior, agreed, “I prefer for my grades to be finalized, if you can’t do it before break, at least towards the beginning of it. Not at the end. Absolutely not at the end.”

“It makes me really anxious because I either think that I’m at the bottom of the line which kind of makes me doubt myself more than I do when it’s at the beginning because I have less time to stress and think about it,” Moore explained.

Teachers have preferences on when finals should be graded as well.

To some it is important to prioritize their time over break and get the grading done before.

“Always before break. Over break I just want to have nothing on my mind related to school, and just really get away from it for a couple of weeks,” German teacher Brent Mackey said.

Math teacher Justin Mathes tries to get most of his grading done before break, but sometimes finishes grading around Christmas. Mathes reflected how he is glad this time around, wasn’t like the year with COVID and finals.

“I’m really just glad that it’s unlike the COVID year, when we had finals after break. That was not ideal, in my opinion, to have the gap and then have the finals, so I’m really glad we’re back to the traditional finals, before the break schedule,” Mathes reflected.

“The ones earlier in the week I tend to grade, but I didn’t put them all in until the day before,” Latin teacher Jeff Smith said about how he prefers to put grades in at the end of break.

There is a question of whether the subject matters considering many English teacher’s finals include essays where some other subjects have multiple choice exams.

“I’m not sure I have a preference. Different finals would be dependent on what you teach like an English teacher would probably need more to grade an essay than I did in a particular format, so it made it a little easier for me to get mine grade soon, so I don’t have a preference,” science teacher Greg Heard said.

As many people like Mathes remember, during COVID, fall second-term finals fell after break. Teachers were surveyed about this being a possible option due to the fact that the fall semester is two weeks shorter than the spring semester.

“Now what can I say about the two week discrepancy? I know that there was discussion of having finals after break verses having them prior to break which I think most staff would agree. I actually think students would agree too, having them prior to break ultimately results in higher scores,” Spanish teacher and NEA representative Jaime Adamski said.