Breaks are a nice thing for anyone to have, however they are not without their problems. This is a question that school teachers have constantly asked themselves and students have complained about. With the question being whether midterms/finals should be assigned before or after the break.

When asked this question, Mr. Pratt, a high school teacher at Jefferson-Morgan had this to say “I prefer to have midterms after the break because it allows me to do everything in a sequential order.”  Pratt also said “It doesn’t make it easier but it helps more than having it before, it just makes sense, because half the year is over.”

However, Jordan Hess, a student at Jefferson-Morgan was asked the same question, he responded with  “I prefer to have it before since I’ll still have all of the info in my head. When I take midterms after the break, I have to relearn the subject and become confused.”  

Both the teacher’s and student’s stance make sense to me. On one hand, having any important exam after the break allows teachers to plan out and put together a timeline for the nine weeks. On the other hand, it’s much easier for students to take the final exam. Before the break when they have all the needed information ready, however during the break most students forget parts of the subject and are in a scramble to relearn it before a test.
Personally, I believe that having a test before the break is more beneficial to both the student and the teacher due to one similarity that Pratt and Hess had in common. They both stated that they did not like to think about school during break at all. Pratt even said that “No, I do not think about school over break because it’s my time to relax and be with my family. I need a break from this place.”