In the past, students only took two finals each day and then could leave early. This year, students are now required to take three finals a day, not counting the ones they exempt, and are not allowed to leave the school afterwards.

Many students are not happy with this change. There are various reasons why, but one of the major reasons is the unnecessary amount of hours staying at school after the exams. Since students are not allowed to leave early after final exams anymore, they will be stuck in classes with nothing to do.

“I think the new policy is a bit absurd, but I’m not mad about it,” junior Kaleb Matthews said. “It’s odd how much they want people to stay, and how there’s less wait time between the exams. Two exams in three days to three exams in two days is a lot.”

Additionally, students who have had to stay in school after finals in the past know that the teachers, whose classes they have to attend afterwards, will most likely not give them any work to do since it is the end of the semester. 

“I think this new policy is pretty dumb because I don’t want to stay and do nothing,” junior Maya Hopper said. “Unless they allow us to use our phones or give activities unrelated to school, because kids are tired after finals.”

Some students agree that the exhaustion of having three finals in a day can even cause final scores to go down.

“I believe this change will affect the students,” junior Heidi Chance said. “With this sudden and unnecessary change, I believe final scores will decrease, the reason being that we are taking three tests in one day. At the end of the school day, I suspect students will be unmotivated and exhausted.”

As mentioned before, backpacks are still not allowed on campus during finals week, although this is not a new policy.

“We can’t bring our backpacks either,” Matthews said. “Which makes sense for safety, but it’ll still be hours of nothing but looking at walls.”

Final exams are usually longer than normal tests that could be completed during one class period, so students taking more difficult courses are at a disadvantage.

“I believe the final schedule shouldn’t be three exams per day,” senior Azucena Figueroa said. “Because many students have very difficult classes and that would be a lot of stress and workload for them.”

Even though there are many negative opinions towards this new policy, we all still hope that everything will go well once finals week comes.