Semesters are defined as two halves of a school year, however at Mira Costa, semesters aren’t split equality. The 1st semester is significantly shorter, 5 weeks less than the 2nd semester. Most schools do not operate this way, making this automatically seem like a bad planning idea, which many may say it is, but some may also see the benefits of this schedule.
Teachers are expected to teach the same amount of material in both semester one and semester two. Due to semester one being much shorter, lessons are taught faster, there are fewer review days, and larger amounts of homework. Most students need more time to take in information, making it impractical to have tests right after the information is taught, something that happens a lot in semester one.
“Because second semester is much longer than first semester, it often feels more overwhelming, with more assignments and tests packed in,” said Junior Mackenzie Weber. “I think it would make more sense for both semesters to be the same length so neither feels more stressful than the other.”
Also, most students are in sports, and a lot of sports at Costa are fall sports. That factor, in addition to the idea that students are adjusting to their new classes and new teachers during the first semester, can make the first semester feel even more packed and also imbalance in comparison to the second semester.
“Being in a fall sport makes the first semester seem way quicker,” said Senior Caitlin Kawalec. “With constant practice and matches it seems so busy that you kind of get lost in your own time and it seems to go by so quickly.”
With all the cons of semester two being longer, some may see a pro in that AP tests are second semester, meaning with the added time, students have a greater amount of time to study. Also, a lot of AP classes finish with their material around the months of April or May before the AP tests come around.
“Although it is kind of weird both semesters are different lengths, semester two being longer gives us more time to study for our AP exams, and there are more breaks, so it makes sense that semester 2 is longer,” said Junior Natalia Winterson.
It may not seem like there is a good solution to this, because some students prefer the idea of being done with finals before they go off to winter break. Other schools like Redondo Union High School, split their semesters evenly and have finals a few weeks after winter break. The question is whether students want to be done with finals before the holiday season, or complete them after and have equal length semesters.
“I wouldn’t like to have finals after break,” said Junior Lise-May Denis-Lavigne. “I would prefer unequal semesters because having finals after break is really stressful, and I like having nothing to do when break comes.”
Leave a Reply