Unlike last year, Paly’s World Languages Department will administer final examinations during finals week along with other departments.

Last year, all world language teachers gave finals on block days before winter break and then distributed a questionnaire to get student feedback on the timing of their exams. By doing so, the world languages teachers hoped to lessen student stress during the finals week and give them a more relaxing break, according to Norman Masuda, one of the language department’s instructional supervisors.

Department questionnaires showed that while students appreciated having early language finals in concept, they in fact experienced more stress because of how studying for language finals collided with preparing for major unit exams or finals on other subjects, according to Kevin Duffy, the department’s other instructional supervisor.

Such problems should have been avoided, according to Masuda

"With a unanimous vote, our department was the only one to agree on giving early final exams [last year]," Masuda said. "The permission to do so was given only to the Language Department; however, some teachers [in other departments also] gave their finals in December."

With their carefully planned changes, which have been considered in advance for a long time, the World Languages Department was shocked by the results of the early finals experiment, according to Masuda.

"It was very frustrating for us," Masuda said. "I really felt helpless for the students."

The World Languages teachers still hope to find better ways to help students balance their lives between study and rest, according to Duffy and Masuda. All teachers should cooperate when dealing with finals schedules to lesson student stress, Masuda said.

Many students hoped to take their languages finals before winter break as they did last year.

"I definitely wanted to take my Spanish final before winter break [like I did last year]," Sophomore Bobby Holman said. "Spanish is the hardest one I have to take because it covers the most information, and that would also leave me with one less final for the finals week."