With winter break approaching one would expect students to be happy, but students at magnet never show this happiness. This is due to many issues that occur in the previous and following weeks of school. The issues all seem to radiate off the idea that classes get behind and are forced to cram before exams. Below are the reasons why the current state of winter break is broken. 

Exams after Break: 

The idea of 9 week quarters is the root cause of this issue because when implemented into the school schedule there are not 18 true weeks of school before break. So Charleston County School District decided that it was more important to make a congruent schedule than it is to help students grades. In addition, students are forced to study for exams over break because the week that they get back is complete chaos leading to essentially no break for students. 

Amount of work before break:

Most teachers tend to fall behind due to numerous issues throughout the first quarter some that they cannot control like hurricanes. However, teachers try to get caught up before exams, especially before break, because they do not want to alter the midterm or start the next semester behind. What they don’t realize however is that every teacher is doing this and it gets to the point where there is no class before the quiz or test to review making the previous week of break burdened with tests and quizzes. 

Influx of work after break: 

In addition to the week before break the week after is just as worse if not the worst. By this time every year teachers realize that they only have one week before exams and must get all the content in order to give the exam that they have. This means that students are being forced to take tests the day they get back as I already have a test and a quiz on my first class back. Teachers and the county need to realize that by doing this, students do not have time to review for their midterms or finals in semester classes. 

Overall the district needs to consider moving exams before break like most private schools in Charleston. From this students will not be as pressured in the week before and after break resulting in higher grades because they have more time to study for the test that they do have. A negative of this, however, would be that teachers would have to alter their midterms to get rid of the information that has not been taught. In return, students will have more time to study resulting in better grades which is especially helpful for seniors sending their midyear transcripts to colleges.