As winter break quickly approaches, so do midterms. Many students across the country spend countless hours studying before the holidays but students at MHS will not take their exams until after they return from break.

Freshman science teacher Polly Canfield prefers the old schedule over the new one. Canfield said, “I felt that when we had midterms before break, it was nice because break was truly a break. It was a break for teachers and for students.”

Senior Aidan Arth is entering his last semester of high school and wants his last midterms out of the way before break. He said, “I think having exams after break is just going to bring upon a lot of stress on kids, and it’s just going to make that week even more stressful.”

Canfield is concerned that this new schedule will not only be stressful for students but staff members as well. She said, “As a teacher I dislike having only five days after the break.”

According to Canfield, in the days before block schedule, semester exams were in January but they weren’t this early. She said, “Exams were always Martin Luther King week, which was nice. Students had a three day weekend to prepare for the tests and then they had a three day break after to reset before the second semester [started].”

Sophomore Audrey Galgoczy has been eagerly awaiting break but is worried she is going to have to spend it studying. She said, “There is a benefit of having all that time to study leading into the exam week, although it is holiday break and nobody wants to be studying or doing school work.”

Arth wants to make the holiday break all about family, friends, and fun. He said, “I don’t think anyone is going to be worrying about school. I am not going to spend my break studying.”

Galgoczy wants to enter the break stress-free, that means having exams done. “I think exams should be before winter break because we are all going to forget everything, and it’s going to cause more stress in students,” She said

Canfield is always trying to minimize stress for her students. She said, “Now I feel like break is going to be stressful for kids because of exams, stressful for teachers getting ready for the next semester as well as getting ready for the end of the quarter.”

Midterm exams for students will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 10 and will continue through Thursday, Jan. 12.