Stress, studying and maybe a few tears—before or during Christmas break? From the perspective of students, the pros and cons of having finals before or after Christmas break can stop here—but, in reality, it is just the start.

As of now, Saint Viator is on a finals schedule with finals after Christmas break. About ten years ago, though, Viator decided to try the schedule with finals before break for about three years.

At this time, Mrs. Eileen Manno, now the principal of Saint Viator, worked in Viator’s counseling department. Because of this, she has been able to see firsthand the effects of both finals schedules. When it comes to finals before Christmas, she saw mostly negative implications on students, teachers and parents.

“What we discovered were meltdowns for seniors who were trying to get applications in for college and scholarships, which have a lot of December 1, December 15, then January 1 deadlines,” said Mrs. Manno. “Then seniors were also going to faculty and asking for letters of recommendation, which was causing added stress on them at this time of year.”

Senior Jordan Hora also testified to the stress of application due dates, and that it would be too much if studying for finals was added to the mix.

“A lot of the deadlines [for college applications] that people have are in December and even in January,” said Hora. “Many people work on that over Christmas break so they have it all done and don’t have to worry about it. But if you had finals in addition to everything else before break, then I feel like people would definitely put college as more important than their current grades.”

The stress on seniors was not the only negative effect, however; Mrs. Manno went on to explain that the start of school had to be pushed up when finals were before Christmas break. Almost anyone who has experienced the lack of air conditioning at Viator on a hot summer day knows it is not something to look forward to.

“At that time we were starting school almost seven days earlier than we start now, and we’re not air conditioned,” said Mrs. Manno. “Having to start seven days earlier really was stressful in terms of the weather.”

Families also still took their kids out of school before finals were over for vacation, which caused problems with making up the tests and having unfair advantages.

“People still left early for vacation, so then we were scrambling trying to make up exams,” said Mrs. Manno. “It’s understandable, but it really did pose significant problems with making up exams. And we couldn’t give it early because it gave an unfair advantage that the test was out there.”

From the other end of the spectrum comes Jake Horcher, a sophomore at Barrington High School, which has a finals schedule before break.

“I like finals before Christmas break because we don’t forget anything, or we don’t have a long time to forget anything,” said Horcher. “We also have review days the week leading up to the finals without the break in between, so I think that’s better.”

Horcher explained that finals before Christmas break allowed him to relax over the break and focus on a new semester.

“I also feel like you just get it over with,” said Horcher. “You don’t have to worry about knowing that you have to take finals after Christmas break, so you can really just enjoy your break knowing that the semester’s over and when you get back you have a new slate.”

Mrs. Manno also touched on having a total break for two weeks from the stressors of school and finals.

“I get it—I think it would be nice for me if at any time I could go on vacation for two weeks and not be thinking about [Viator],” said Mrs. Manno. “But it doesn’t happen in reality. It never happens.”

Mrs. Manno, now looking from the standpoint of a principal, said that she does not feel like it is fair to make kids and parents wait to see their grades.

“As the principal now, I’m not comfortable with asking kids and parents to wait two weeks to see how they did on those exams,” said Mrs. Manno. “There’s too much stress that that can cause in some families, and to some kids.”

Horcher also talked about when their finals grades are posted.

“Last year they had infinite campus, which is where our grades are posted, and shut down during the week of finals and during Christmas break,” said Horcher. “The teachers had to post our grades two or three weeks into the new semester.”

Talk about finals tends to revolve around students, but Horcher brings up another important factor: the impact different finals schedules have on teachers.

“Teachers devote so much of their personal lives to students, whether it be staying after school to help out on something or answering emails when a student has questions,” said Hora.

“I feel like that needs to be taken into consideration because teachers sometimes do work a lot harder than the students do. I think they need to be taken into consideration as well, not just the students.”

Mrs. Manno also explained that she felt some of the teachers’ own break time during the Christmas holiday was taken away when Viator used the before-break finals schedule.

“Another disadvantage that I found was that we would give the exams until the first day of Christmas break, and then the parents would be looking for the grades all Christmas break, expecting teachers to sit and grade everything and enter the grades during their break,” Mrs. Manno said. “That really cut into their time off with their family as well.”

Mrs. Manno left the impression that finals before Christmas break is not the schedule best for Viator. She proceeded to say that the negative effects of finals before break were not worth it for Viator students. The grades on final tests taken before break during the few years Saint Viator tried it, and after Christmas break during the years prior, were essentially the same when compared.

“One of the biggest things we discovered was that we looked at grades from three years prior to the three years that we did this to see if there were overall higher scores by doing it in December,” said Mrs. Manno. “We saw no significant improvement in grades with giving it before or after. The grades were consistently the same.”

All in all, each finals schedule has its perks as well as pitfalls, and the best schedule for some schools differs from the best schedule for others.