Although seemingly few people welcomed returning to school a week earlier than usual after an especially short summer, students will benefit from the new finals schedule later in the school year. The pre-winter break finals schedule allows students to properly relax over the holidays.

This year will be the start of a new implemented schedule in which first semester finals begins the week before break and school ends a week earlier than previous years.

The few weeks leading up to finals may be filled with pressured late nights and crammed planners, but the relief of having a worry-free break will be worth it. In fact, the increased stress may be more productive for students because they know that they will have to finish studying before the start of the winter break. With the old schedule, many students intended to study over the the two weeks of vacation but never actually accomplished as much as they would have liked.

After first semester finishes, all students can truly enjoy their winter break like students from many other Bay Area schools, instead of having to worry about upcoming finals.

School vacations should be treated as holidays rather than as a period of intense studying, but this year will require some adjustment from both the students and teachers, seeing as first semester is now a full 14 days shorter compared to second semester. It may be tougher for seniors because common applications are due the week after finals, but waiting until the last couple of weeks to finish submitting isn’t the safest strategy in the first place.

Regarding the reduced time to study for finals, many upperclassmen should already be accustomed to teachers administering major unit tests the week preceding break. Another advantage to the new schedule is that AP classes now have an extra week to prep students, and all classes have one week longer before STAR testing. Starting school earlier this year is also compensated with the fact that school will end a week earlier than usual.

In the long run, the new finals schedule will improve the school environment as a whole and allow students to experience a much more relaxing winter break.