With second semester final exams approaching quickly, BSM students will soon begin the stressful process of reviewing for finals. In an effort to ease this process, BSM adopted a new schedule for the exams, which will spread them out over the course of three days, increasing the amount of time that students can prepare for their exams.

Second semester exams will now take place over the course of three days––as opposed to two in previous years––June 5-7. “Last year in January, students had to test from eight to noon with almost no breaks… [It] was just way too long. With the revised schedule, students will now have three evenings to prep, so that they won’t have to cram their studying into two nights.” Said Dr. Skinner.

On June 4, the day before exams, periods one and two will last one hour with the intent of helping students review for those final exams, which will take place the next day. The rest of the classes will be shortened and school will get out at 2:40, as usual. “Each class plans to spend sixty minutes of in–class reviewing for the exams, but since first and second period exams are the next day, students will review for the full sixty minutes for those classes,” said Dr. Skinner.

The next day on June 5th, students will then take the exams for their first two periods and then attend shortened periods 3 through 8. “After students will take their first two exams, they will continue to complete the sixty minutes of their review for their later periods,” said Dr. Skinner.

Between each exam, the new schedule has also added a fifteen minute break before the next exam. “It’s really just for students to be able to collect their thoughts, and be able to get some food or go to the bathroom,” said Dr. Skinner.

The decision, brought to the senior high academic council, received positive feedback from the department chairs. “Several of us were already aware about how stressful the exams were last year, and were very pleased by the new schedule,” said Mrs. Nightingale, Math Department Chair.

Student council members, who approved the new schedule, agreed that that the new schedule was best–suited for student needs. “It’s a great compromise to spread out finals over 3 days because it will greatly reduce the stress involved for preparing for the tests and hopefully lead to a better experience for everyone involved,” said Sara Silvestri, Senior Class president.