As most students already know, this is the inaugural year of half-day finals. As the result of a rearrangement of scheduling and the school being deemed a high-performing school by the Indiana Department of Education, students will now leave school after their last exam of the day on Thursday and Friday of finals week. This is a significant change for the student body.

Half-day finals were instigated in order to give teachers more time to grade. Because educational standards are moving toward more critical thinking, teachers are assigning more projects, and will use this extra time to grade.

However, there are several unintended effects on students as well. Half-day finals are actually a major step toward schoolday efficiency during finals week. Students usually spend their post-finals class periods browsing social media, watching the first half of Disney movies or talking to their friends. Now, they will be released, which means several changes resulting in less wasted time will take place.

For many, the switch will result in more time to study at home. Some students cannot focus when they are mentally exhausted from finals, surrounded by friends or distracted by movies playing in the same room. With the ability to go home and study free from distraction, students will be able to use studying time more productively.

Additionally, if students choose not to study, a nap after finals will help rejuvenate the brain. With a break between the end of the school day and the beginning of athletic practices, jobs and further studying, students will have time to relax and rest their minds.

“[In the time allotted after finals] I observed far too many students making poor choices on how to use their time,” psychology teacher Brian Catt said. “They would stay up too late the night before, thinking they were studying, and then be mentally and physically exhausted. After they were done with an exam, they seemed to be too tired to review for the second exam of the day or to prepare for the two exams scheduled for the next day. If students are serious about the their grades, the half days could be very beneficial to their rest and preparation.”

Though these effects on students were not the original goal of these half-day finals, students seem to be majorly benefitting.

Cutting unused time out of exam days is the first move toward a more efficient schedule for students. Currently, 67% of students surveyed estimate that they spend over 20 minutes during each school day unproductively. 35% said they were unproductive for over 40 minutes each day. Over the course of a semester, this adds up to a lot of wasted time.

It is true that cutting the extra class periods from the last two days of finals does not affect the amoung of free time on regular school days. This is a step in the right direction for students who feel much of their time is wasted in school. Although this was not the intended effect of the switch, it will be a well-recieved change for students.