When sophomore Annie Van Pilsum-Johnson found out her precalculus finals were moved up, she felt surprised but relieved she could get the tests over early.

Van Pilsum-Johnson said taking the test before the set finals days, June 9 and 10, will alleviate studying stress.

“We don’t have the final at the same time as all of our other finals,” Van Pilsum-Johnson said. “We don’t have the same amount of pressure and it takes some of the pressure off for (the set finals days) because there’s so much other pressure on us.”

Precalculus teacher Elizabeth Huesing said her finals will take place May 26 and 27 instead of on the final day at the end of the year.

According to Huesing, the last few weeks of the year will be comprised of mini-units designed to prepare students for the math class they plan to take next year.

Huesing said the mini-units will briefly educate students on some skills they will need for the future.

“We’ll be dividing students up into three groups depending on what they signed up for next year. There will be a group working on (AP Calculus), (AP Statistics) and (IB SL Math),” Huesing said.

Precalculus teacher Amanda Forsberg said the need to prepare students for next year prompted the change in finals dates.

“There’s certain things that you need for (next year’s classes) that are different, so rather than funneling everyone together when you’re branching off, we’ll do a little preview of things,” Forsberg said.

According to Forsberg, the mini-units are not cutting down on time students have to learn the regular precalculus material.

“We got through everything we needed to. It’s not like we cut stuff short in the precalc curriculum,” Forsberg said.

Van Pilsum-Johnson said, despite getting to prepare herself for next year, she wishes she had more time to study for the math final.

“(The earlier finals are) stressful because we have less time to prepare for it. We haven’t had much class time,” Van Pilsum-Johnson said.

Huesing said the change will help students adjust to taking a test at approximate AP testing time, as students won’t be cramming at the end of the year for finals.

“I think the students have been pretty responsive about the timing. A lot of them were taking some AP and IB tests and they finished those and now we’re getting ready for this so they’re seeing it as not all crunched together at the end,” Huesing said.

Finals for Forsberg’s precalculus classes will take place May 25 and 26. Finals for Huesing’s precalculus classes will take place May 26 and 27.