During winter break in the 2010-2011 school year, senior Vivian Tsai and her family visited her grandparents in Taiwan. On her trip, she had to bring along her calculus textbook, her Barron’s AP Chemistry prep book and the AP History textbook to study for finals in January.

This year, Tsai and other students had no such worries since they had taken finals before Christmas and had a real break from the grind of school. The move to having finals before break was difficult but worthwhile and should continue into the future.

Beyond moving finals to the week before winter break, the administration also prohibited teachers from assigning work for second semester over the break. This ensured that both students and teachers had literally no mandatory schoolwork until the first day of second semester.

Although students this year lost a week of summer due to the transition to the new schedule, winter vacation was also lengthened by a few days. Next year, summer vacation will return to its traditional length.

Students who count on using winter break to study have been negatively impacted by the change to the new finals schedule. However, these students are typically in the minority. For those students who choose not to study over break, the material they learn during first semester is fresher in their minds when finals are taken before break.

Since academic stress is likely the most significant problem for students, the new calendar is especially beneficial. In recent years, even students who did not work during the break still felt stressed about finals and sometimes even regretted not being more productive during the two weeks. With no possible schoolwork to think about, there is no possibility for stress and no work to regret ignoring.

Furthermore, with the aid of a genuine two-week break, students can return to class fully recharged and ready for the start of the second semester. In the past, students would have only three-day weekend after finals before jumping right into the next semester, often feeling resentful and tired.

For seniors, however, the new schedule places finals right before the end of the college application season. Although seniors now have to juggle both college application deadlines and finals, most of them have already been working on their applications for several months by the time winter break arrives.

For teachers, the new schedule meant having to do a lot of grading right before Christmas, and in some cases well beyond. But most seemed to agree that the two-week break was less stressful than in the past.

Thanks to this new schedule, winter break has given both teachers and students a welcome reprieve from the usual stress of school life. Winter vacation now offers exactly what everybody at this school needs: a break from it all.