Around December last year the Wentzville School District announced that finals would be taken after break this year, many students did not like the idea.

The original schedule for finals would be studying around two weeks, then take the finals before winter break. With the newest news of finals being taken after winter break, many students are panicking. 

During winter break, it is supposed to be relaxing and a break from school. Most students will not want to study during the breaks. 

“People aren’t going to want to study during their break,” Grace Peters (‘23) said. “Breaks are supposed to be for unwinding and not worrying about school. The week before break is for reviewing and stressing, break is for relaxing.”

For students who do not like studying, this is a perfect opportunity for them to try and study.

Although students will have to take finals after winter break, the original way was better. During the break students might forget what they previously learned and studied.

“No because for one after that whole break most people would forget everything,”  Rian Thierry (‘21) said. “After we do finals it’s a huge relief to be done and to just go enjoy winter break with no worries, but if we were to wait until after break I feel it would stress a lot of students out.”

When students review before their finals, they remember everything. However, having 10 days off for winter break some students might not remember everything.

For studying, students may be going on vacation during winter break or seeing family. Not many students would want to study over winter break.

“It’s winter break and we all want a break from school at that point,” Raegan Huitt (‘23) said. “Many people go on vacation or are just busy during break and won’t make the time to study.” 

Some students may have a job, or volunteer and are not able to study as frequently as other students. 

The teachers will be giving us at least one to two weeks to prepare when we get back to school, the scores will be very affected. 

“1-2 weeks is okay I guess but in that time it’s going to be about refreshing while if we just did it before we left, we wouldn’t need that much time just to remember,” Reece Evans (‘23) said. “I think scores are going to be very low.” 

Taking finals after winter break will be taking up the students’ learning time, normally a new unit would start after winter break.

It is hard to tell if students will do well on their finals, considering most students will not want to study during winter break. One student in particular who said that it was a good idea that Wentzville School District is having us do finals after winter break. 

“Students will hopefully do good on the finals because we can study over winter break and have more preparation time before we take them,” Danica Flotten (‘24) said. 

Preparation is a key for this because even if you have 10 minutes to spare, you can study in the meantime.

Last year we were supposed to take finals, yet they got canceled due to a snow day and Covid-19.

“I think students might do okay but I don’t believe the scores will be better than they were last year especially in a time like we’re in right now,” Hayley Starek (‘22) said. “A lot of students are struggling including myself so I don’t think finals will be very good this year, especially considering we didn’t take finals at all last year so it’s another transition and change can be hard on people.”

Due to not taking any finals last year from the snow days and Covid-19, the Board of Education may have thought taking finals after winter break will actually happen. 

Since we are taking finals after winter break, not many students will want to study or even do the finals. It all involves preparation during the break and studying.