Before the 2015-16 school year, it was common for Pleasant Valley and other Iowa school districts to have their first day of school early-to-mid-August. This allowed final exams to comfortably take place before the start of Winter Break, meaning students could enjoy their days off without having to worry about studying for tests.

In April 2015, Iowa Governor, Terry Branstad, signed a bill saying Iowa schools can’t start the academic year before Aug. 23. Branstad felt early start dates interfered with tourism–namely, the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. The State Fair affects some school districts more than others. However, Branstad’s legislation applies to every non-year-round school, even those that are several hours away from the fair. For Pleasant Valley, this means pushing the end of first semester back into January for an event many students will still not attend.

Pleasant Valley was still able to have their final exams before Winter Break in 2015, but some classes were rushing to cover all the necessary materials before the exams took place in December. The later start date also left an awkward week in January after the break where students had already taken their first semester finals but still had to report to their first semester classes. Much to everyone’s dismay, the 2016-17 school year will be different. Principal Mike Zimmer expressed his frustration, “[If the state] left the school start date to local control, we would’ve had our semester exams done before break, and everybody would’ve gone home and enjoyed their break.”

Many PV High School students aren’t happy about having to take their finals after Winter Break. Junior Myra Bowe explained, “There’s a gap that’s going to disrupt the progression of learning.” According to a Twitter poll, 89% of PVHS students agree with Bowe and prefer taking their final exams before break. “We’re all stressing over break about remembering [what we learned],” Bowe added.

While students may not be able to control when they take their finals, they can control how and when they choose to prepare. If you’re a high school student wanting to make the most of your break, the beginning of December isn’t too early to start prepping for the hefty exams.

The first thing you can do is easy, and it will save you lots of time later on. Spend 30 minutes going through your folders and notebooks from each of your classes that gives a final. Pull out any major notes and study guides, along with some specific worksheets from any topics you might have had trouble with. Put the papers in chronological order, then paperclip them together for easy study access.

Even though there are still six school days after the 11-day break before we start taking final exams, 11 days is plenty of time to forget much of a semester’s worth of learning. Don’t wait until after break to start studying for finals. Commit a small amount of time, as little as 10 minutes a day, to looking over your notes or doing a couple practice problems. Remember that you’ve already done the hard part and learned all the material; now, all you have to do is maintain it. If you sacrifice just a little bit of your time off, you’ll thank yourself later when you see your semester grades.