Students dissatisfied with split finals week schedule

For mechanical engineering major CC Durham, navigating Pitt’s new final exam schedule is especially challenging because she has multiple group projects due during exam season.

“We have two projects right now at the same time, and we have finals in all of our other classes as well,” Durham said. “It’s really just too much work.”

This year, the University will operate under a revised final exam schedule, with undergraduate classes meeting for regular sessions until Tuesday, December 10, and exams beginning on Wednesday, December 11 and ending on Tuesday, December 17.

Multiple students have expressed dissatisfaction with the change, as many will still be learning new material just days before exams, have less time to study and have to adjust travel plans. Others fear that students who have later exams have an unfair advantage, as they will have more time to study material learned in the last two days of regular classes. 

Adam Lee, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, attributed the exam schedule change to a later start to the fall semester and longer fall break for students, leaving less time to conclude classes and exams.

“The exam period is the result of this year’s fall semester start happening later in August, the re-introduction of a two-day fall break for students, and a tight turnaround between Thanksgiving and the end of the term,” Lee said. “To ensure that there were enough instructional days on the calendar, the last day of classes falls on a Tuesday.”

Lee said pushing final exams back another week would not allow enough time for final grades to be submitted on time, making the split-week layout necessary. 

“Delaying exams until the following week would have prevented getting end-of-term grades and enrollment processing done before the University holiday closure. The result is the split exam schedule this year.” 

Brianne Bergman, a sophomore material sciences and engineering major, said she hates the new finals schedule because she will have to cram her studying into a short time window.

“A week and a half after getting back from Thanksgiving break is not enough time,” Bergman said. “I would have had to start studying, to be two weeks in advance for my finals, like last week, and that’s not optimal.”

Sidney Pastorek, a first-year elementary education major, thinks the split finals schedule “could be more fair” to students who learn new material the same week as their final exams. 

“If the stuff that you’re learning at the beginning of the week is on your final, you could only have one day to study, but someone else in [another] class could have four or five days.” 

Unlike Pitt, some colleges, like the University of Pennsylvania, have adopted designated reading days after classes end to help students prepare for final exams. This year, Penn’s reading days fall on Tuesday, December 10, and Wednesday, December 11 before final exams start the next day. 

Bergman said she thinks integrating a “reading day” midway through finals week would help ease students’ stress about studying.

“I’m still learning new material the day before finals, and not having at least a day in between of no class and no finals is not great,” Bergman said. “I know other schools get a reading week or a reading day, and that would definitely [help].”

Hayley Felan, a sophomore Japanese and linguistics double major, said having finals split into two separate weeks makes coordinating winter break plans difficult. 

“I know some people are leaving super early, [and] I know some people are leaving super late because of it, and it’s kind of like putting a wrench in people’s winter plans,” Felan said. “For me personally, a lot of my teachers scheduled my finals outside of finals week, maybe because of [the new schedule].”

Felan said it was “a struggle” attending class after Thanksgiving break due to the quick onset of finals.  

“Today I only have two classes, and I feel like the world is about to crumble on top of me,” Felan said.

Durham said having projects due after her last final will cause her to stay on campus longer and delay her trip home, which made scheduling a flight challenging. 

“It would have been much cheaper for me to [fly] home a certain day when I had finals that day, [but] then I have a project that weekend, so I have to fly a totally different day than I usually would,” Durham said.

While many students have expressed concerns about the new exam schedule, students like Evaline West, a sophomore linguistics major, say they have less strong feelings about the change. 

“I would definitely prefer if finals did start on Monday, but personally, because my professors decided not to have any finals during finals week, I’m okay with it,” West said. “[But] even [then], that’s pretty stressful.”