Although education is considered to be one of the best blessings in the world, students in America may disregard such a notion. Finals in high school, which test students on all of the materials they have learned during the term, are known to have negative effects, even driving students sometimes to be mentally unhealthy. To alleviate their stresses, very few have suggested pushing the finals after the after winter break, while others maintain that finals should be before the break.

One student who wants to take the finals before the break, Vincent Tran (10) stated that finals should be “before Winter Break so the stress on finals doesn’t hang over students’ shoulders for an extra two weeks.” All of West students’ could probably enjoy their Winter Break much more if  finals were held before rather than after.  Other than the stress factor, there are also academic benefits of taking the finals earlier. Robert  Kim (11) agrees that if finals were held earlier, all the “baggage would be lifted off  [students’] shoulders.” In addition, he stated that if finals were after Winter Break, “we will end up forgetting a lot of the curriculum learned  right before.” Therefore, finals would not accurately reflect what the students have learned before Winter Break, rather what and how much they have forgotten over break.

   Chuck Driesler (12) strongly suggested that finals should be held “before for sure, but that would mean shift[ing] the whole year back a month which cuts into summer for people one year.” The school year would  end a month earlier like most LAUSD  schools. A resulting benefit from moving  the school year a month back would be it  helps AP classes too. Driesler believes this “upfront sacrifice” would be worthwhile as  do Tran and Kim.

Having finals before winter break  appears to be the favored option in West High’s student community for it has many  advantages. Hopefully we will see a change  to the school year soon.