In past years, Wheaton Warrenville South has held its finals after winter break in mid-January. This meant that for many students winter break was filled with anxious thoughts about grades, finals, and GPAs. As other local schools finished their first semester before break, students at South were stuck with projects and homework.

In 2021 school began on Aug. 25, but this year we started school 9 days earlier on Aug. 17 in preparation for finals to occur before break. This year we finish school on June 1, two days earlier than last year. These changes to the calendar were made in order to have finals before break and still meet the statewide requirements for the amount of time in school.

Having finals before break has relieved stress for a lot of students. “I think having finals before break is much better because we get them over with and are able to relax over break,” senior Becca Buttell stated.

Even with all these benefits, there are still a few downsides to having finals before break. For one, students do not have any breaks before finals in which to study. This means that students need to be proactive with studying in order to perform well on final exams. “Unfortunately, I am concerned for my statistics grade because finals are too soon,” senior Maya Bose said.

Additionally, regular decision deadlines for college happen in late December to early January which conflicts with finals. Seniors may fall behind on their studying because the end of first semester lines up with college deadlines. They are usually busy writing essays and turning in the required materials.

The number of days in the semester can impact not only students and their time to study, but also teachers as they plan out their year. First semester has 82 days while the second semester has a total of 93 school days. This uneven amount of days between the two semesters could potentially lead to difficulty with lesson planning.

Even though there may be a few downsides to having finals earlier, the freedom of truly having a break from school will allow everyone to spend relaxing quality time with their family and friends.