Some classes at South take their midterms earlier than the scheduled date. There are many different reasons for doing this. AP (Advanced Placement) Chemistry is one of those classes.

There are a few different reasons for having the midterm held early. According to Gray Rahm ’20, it has to do with having enough time to learn all of the material.

“We take it early because the AP test is in May,” Rahm said. “When most schools start in the middle of August, we start in September, so we have to get more of our curriculum in before May. We have to have  half the school year be over by mid-December.”

Another reason for the chemistry students taking it early is due to wanting to emulate the college exam process, according to John Theisen.

“We choose to take the midterm early because we are trying to model college and colleges take their exams at the end of the semester which comes right before the holidays,” Theisen said. “So, to be as college-like as possible, we do the midterm at the same time.”

During the 90 minutes of class during midterm week, the students do a lab that takes an hour and a half, which they wouldn’t be able to do during a normal class period Theisen said.

“We are doing an hour and a half college lab,” Kaitlin Ifkovits ’20 said. “The lab we are doing is supposed to be really cool, so I’m excited for that.”

There are ups and downs to taking the test before the scheduled time. Ifkovits had mixed emotions on it.

“Honestly, it was kind of stressful (taking it early), but also really nice to get it out of the way because it’s one less that I have to study for on midterms week,” Ifkovits said. “But it’s also stressful because it was the week before break and that is when all the other teachers pile on other homework, so it was hard to do other homework and other tests on top of having a midterm.”

According to Rahm, taking this midterm early was a unique experience.

“I really liked taking it early, it was kind of weird studying for a midterm in the middle of a regular school week, but it’s making midterms easier because I don’t have one of my hardest midterms, which was the AP Chem one, to study for,” Rahm said.

Overall, an aspect that most of the students like is getting a small break, according to Theisen.

“By taking the midterm before the holidays, when we leave for the holidays there is no homework for the next couple of weeks, so there’s just a break and we start over when we come back.”