Midterm Madness: New changes to the midterm schedule

BY EMILY MORENO

A new midterm schedule has been released and now students will be having a complete school day. Due to a lack of hours, the decision was made that midterm days will now be full days for all Broward County Public Schools (BCPS). However, the decision of the day’s structure will now be left up to the schools.

This year’s midterm week will start on December 14 and like previous years it is the last week before winter break. However, unlike previous years, the structure will include a review session and instead of leaving school early these will be full days.

“Although [sic] the extra time offered may prove to be helpful, I’d most definitely prefer getting home earlier,” junior Francesca Jaques said. “There’s no issues with the schedule we’ve always followed, so the change is slightly stressful.”

CCHS has decided to provide students with a one hour review prior to their test, followed by a 10 minute break and a two hour time period for testing. At 10:50 after the first midterm of the day all students will be released for lunch. After lunch students will return to class at 11:30 including an hour long review and their two hour midterm. 

This one hour review time has garnered some mixed responses from students and staff. The hour prior to testing has to be a structured review period planned out by the teachers. With such a short notice, teachers have been working on their plan for the session.

“I usually kahoot before regular tests anyway, [I’ll] take questions from the students, it’s going to be basically whatever they need,”Marine Science teacher Jason Scarlatelli said. “If they want to go over stuff, if they want to go back through our nearpods or if they just want to be left alone for a while and just review their notes.”

However some teachers feel that this is not needed and this unexpected need to create a structured review session will only add more to their already heavy workload. 

“Another piece of me feels like they should already be ready and prepared and have reviewed so I’m sure how I feel about [the review],” history teacher Peggy Wilfong said. “The fact that I need to prepare something and organize something for them. I feel like it’s their responsibility at that point and not mine. ”

While teachers might not be grateful for this review time some students definitely feel that it will give them an advantage on their tests.

“I actually like [the review]. I feel like when I’m at home I don’t know what exactly to study,” sophomore Adriana Correa said. “But if a teacher is like giving me a review guide I’ll be able to understand more what their test is about since they’re creating the review.”

A big concern for students was exemptions and leaving school for the midterms they won’t be taking. This year for exempted classes students will be allowed to leave the school as long they have parent permission. Slips will be handed out Monday December 6 during students’ first period class. 

The students who choose not to leave campus for exempted exams will go to the auditorium where they will be provided with social emotional learning activities.

“The school counseling department will provide the students that decide to stay on campus if they exempt their midterm some mindfulness activities to give them an opportunity to just relax, stay calm and get ready for the next exams,” guidance director Ronald Ziccardi said. 

Another topic of interest is the one lunch period. Usually the student body is separated into A and B lunch, which raises concerns of overcrowding and extremely long lunch lines for students.

“Everywhere is gonna be filled. I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to find a seat anywhere,” freshman Alana Khan said.

This new schedule definitely resulted in a strong reaction from staff and students with there being many differing opinions on the topic. However, this interesting new format is how midterms week will be this year for CCHS students.