January is an interesting time of the year. It is a time for to celebrate the New Year and make resolutions. And if you are a high school student, it is also a time to re-study everything you have learned over the past four months.

It is midterm season at Glen Rock High School.

In most years, midterms take place in the middle January, but this year is a little different. Midterms will begin a week later than usual, on Friday, January 24. There is a break on Monday the 27^th when there will be a half day, and then exams continue through Thursday the 30^th.

Many students and faculty have noticed that this is a little unorthodox for a midterm schedule. “We as students are used to regulated schedules and having the extra day might throw people off,” Jake Vielbig (‘14) explains.

“However,” he continues, “I think it gives students an extra day to study, which is opportune, should they have a hard exam the next day.”

Senior, Courtney Schmitt is also intrigued by this year’s schedule. Although she, like many students, would rather “get it over with and go straight through,” she realizes that this change could be beneficial.  “I think it’s definitely different, and part of me kind of likes the fact that there will be a day in between and that it’s a half day of school to study,” Courtney says.

Mr. Arlotta explained that there is a reason for the midterms being later than usual this year, “With school starting later this year, the amount of school days dedicated to each marking period caused the end of the second marking period to be on February 3, 2014.  Normally, the exams are the week prior, but this would cause students to come back for a week before moving to marking period three, which wouldn’t make sense, especially for semester classes”

The reason for the half day on Monday the 27^th is “due to staff development,” according to Mr. Arlotta. He adds that “this day was not part of the exam schedule, and can be a nice way to add to students’ preparation time.”

With this schedule, there is one day after midterms before the second semester begins. This day, Friday January 31, serves as a buffer in case inclement weather causes a change to the exam schedule. An entire week would have been too much time to waste before beginning the semester, so pushing exams back a week solves this problem.

Although the exam schedule may be strange, it will ultimately give students more time to study for their exams, hopefully resulting in better grades and a happier staff and student body.