For the first time, students returned to school Jan. 5 to begin a new semester.

This change, a part of the shifted school year, enabled the school to hold finals before winter break — consequently reducing stress among students.

“I thought it was very helpful since we didn’t have to spend winter break studying,” sophomore Summer Chavez said.

Junior Noah Garfinkel agreed, stating that winter break “was really relaxing.”

Yet, teachers still had to grade student finals between Dec. 18, the last day of school before winter break, and Jan. 5, when fall semester grades were due.

“I could have [had more work to do], but I did it the Friday and Saturday [right before] the break,” French teacher Maryannick Bovard said.

Physics and engineering teacher Ken Jones said he did not see an increased workload.

English teacher Kathy Bowman, however, “was excited about trying a new schedule and was willing to try it even though there would be some sacrifices,” but due to the structure of her final, did not see any additional work over winter break.

The new schedule is expected to help AP students and teachers by providing them with more class time before the AP exams in May.

Jones believes he may finish teaching his students the syllabus earlier this year.

“The other nice thing is that the time after the AP test, [which is] dead time for those students, is less,” Jones said.

The schedule, however, meant that first semester was a few days shorter and that school began three weeks earlier. Accordingly, the change affected semester-long classes, such as AP Psychology, the most.

“We had to go a little bit faster, but we managed fine. We may have lost a little bit of depth in a few topics,” AP Psychology teacher Jeff Appell said.

The schedule changes also affected the dates of several activities such as Awareness Week and the rallies.

“The new schedule means that we will have to have only one rally first semester and the other two during second semester in order to balance the semesters,” Principal Kevin Buchanan said in August 2015.

Senior Roshni Dugar found the schedule change to be a mixed blessing with respect to her college applications.

“By finishing up the finals before break, I was able to concentrate on my applications completely during winter break. However, having to study for finals in the few weeks before break made it difficult to concentrate on apps that were due earlier,” Dugar said.

Most students who were admitted into schools via binding early decision were notified of their admittance before finals and felt finals to be much less stressful.

“I was definitely less stressed than I would have been, knowing that I was already accepted,” senior Sarah Lee said.

Lee was admitted into the Washington University in St. Louis under its binding early decision program.

“However, the fear of a potential rescindment due to low grades motivated me to study hard for finals,” Lee said.