With finals week being just around the corner, there are many opinions on whether finals should be before or after Christmas break. There are pros and cons to each option when it comes to having the final, and many students and teachers have much to say when it comes to deciding on when their finals should take place.

Mrs. Hecker, a geometry, Pre-Calculus, and AP Calculus teacher at Billings Central, has students take the final before and after Christmas break. She has her AP Calculus class take the final exam before Christmas break, and the rest of her math classes take the final after Christmas break. When asked about her opinion on finals, Mrs. Hecker stated, “I think after Christmas break probably works best for most students. I think to get the material done in the couple months that we have wouldn’t be enough, and we would really rush to finish it. So after probably works better.” Mrs. Hecker explained how she believes that having the finals after Christmas break would give students much more time to study for the big week. Students can have the two weeks during the break to prepare and also an additional week leading up to finals week. Having finals after the break can give a student more time to prepare and focus on the exam this semester. When asked about the students’ opinion in her classes, Mrs. Hecker states, “Students are relieved to be done before they leave for Christmas break, so they can thoroughly enjoy Christmas. But again, I think it would stress out some of the kids to have to take, you know, all their finals before they leave for Christmas.” From this quote, one can see how some students are relieved to have some weight lifted off of their chest during the long break, but they have less time to study before Christmas break.

While Mrs. Hecker prefers to have her finals after Christmas break, Mrs. Dicken, a Spanish teacher here at Central, has opinions on when finals should happen that differ from Mrs. Hecker’s views. Mrs. Dicken stated, “I’ve seen that I get better results before Christmas since it’s a foreign language. The students are more prepared while we’re here, instead of have that long break.” She also states, “Instead of having that long break, and after that, it will be more difficult for them to kind of, you know, review, and remember stuff. So I definitely get better results.” Mrs. Dicken goes into how a student may have forgotten some of the subject matter over the break and how students forget that they have a final in the next few weeks. A student may want to focus on family and Christmas more than studying, and they may want to enjoy the holidays without the stress of finals right around the corner. However, some students may feel differently about having finals before Christmas. Mrs. Dicken stated, “They like it, Okay. I mean, most of them, you know, I could say they said perfect. We forget about Spanish, and they’ll just kind of concentrate on what we have to study for the other classes.”

There are also students who have an opinion on the subject. Porter Stevens, a junior at Central and a student of Mrs. Hecker’s, states, “I believe that finals before Christmas break are better because you can focus more on spending time with family instead of studying.” Porter Stevens believes that having the finals before Christmas could lead to students being able to spend more time with their families and not have to worry about spending all of their time studying during the holiday.

Overall, there are many opinions from both students and teachers on when finals should happen during the school year, and teachers have different views on whether their finals should be after Christmas break or before. There are clear pros and cons to each time for the finals. While students may have more time to study before finals week, students will also have to work on schoolwork during the Christmas break instead of having the full two weeks to enjoy the holiday and spend time with family. On the other hand, students may have more free time during the two week Christmas break, but they will have less time to study for the big test everyone is stressing about. No matter when finals happen, there will always be different opinions of when they should be held.