Winter break: the calm before the storm of endlessly studying for finals the following week. For many years, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District has pushed finals week to occur after break, which has students feeling stressed after their relaxing two-week hiatus from school.
Consequently, a large majority of other schools in the South Bay take their finals before break, such as West High School and Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, and many others.
“Coming from a family that puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of academics and how I perform in school, I would much rather have all of the things I had learned from the first semester fresh in my mind than have two weeks to forget a lot of the material I spent time learning,” says PVHS sophomore, Maddy Opsata. “I would rather take my tests before break.”
Sophomore, Caitlin Stoner, also said that “it would be easier to take the tests before break because there is so much that goes on in someone’s life in two weeks. That’s a lot of time to forget things.”
Holding finals after winter break also contradicts the way most colleges prepare for their Spring semester. With almost all colleges having their finals before break, students can leave campus with a fresh mindset and a calm demeanor entering the holidays. If PV incorporated the same plan into our system, it would lead Sea Kings to a less stressful break and would also prepare them more for college.
Despite how the students may feel about finals, the reason our district doesn’t hold them before the break is best described by another article at South High School, “Passing a resolution like this would require consent from the governing board of the schools and districts.”In other words, all the schools in the district need to have the same schedule, so they all must agree to the alteration. Other local districts would also need to switch their calendars, so the South Bay’s community’s students operate on a similar schedule.
Counselor Mrs. Stapleton says, “We should absolutely have finals before break because I think it’s hard to go on a two week break and then come back and get ready for finals. It makes more sense to do finals before the break and start a new semester after coming back. Having finals after makes it harder for students, it makes it harder for teachers; it makes it harder for everyone.”
“It’s a double edged sword,” states counselor Ms. Clement, “I think for you guys (students) it would be easier to go into break being done…and not have that big chunk of time missing with tons of assignments and test hanging over your head. In terms of a college standpoint, it would be really nice to have those grades at the beginning of January. For the seniors, it is a lot of pressure on them; they would have so much to do in a short span of time with finals and applications being due. Our finals being after break extends that time out a little bit more.”
With the New Year representing a time for new beginnings, it would be much easier to walk into the second semester with a blank slate after winter break than to come back to school and immediately be thrown into taking exams. Unfortunately, finals will continue to occur after winter break for as long as the district allows, but who knows, maybe one day Sea King students will enter the holidays having taken all tests and ready for a new start.