Students of the Preuss School UC San Diego had to adapt to taking final exams at home this year. Beginning Monday, January 11th, the week was modified in order for students to have enough time to complete the tests over Zoom.

After the reported rising cases of COVID-19 in San Diego, the Preuss School UC San Diego has modified their online teaching schedule to fit the students’ needs during finals week. This means that there will only be two classes per day and the periods taking their final will have prolonged class time.

“Completing finals via zoom felt very overwhelming, compared to the traditional in person finals because I had to find a quiet space free of distraction.” expressed Carlos Bahena (‘21).

On top of adapting to new and online school schedules this year, students had to adapt to new starting class times for finals week. Classes, during finals week, were extended to two classes a day, each class being a little over two hours with lunch break starting earlier than on a regular schedule day. This allowed students to have more time to study and to work on schoolwork. Having completed finals online and at home this year has definitely presented them with a unique opportunity to prepare for future college level classes and experiences.

“I feel like this experience was preparing me for college in terms of studying,” Kelly Nguyen (‘25) mentioned.

Bahena (‘21) adds, “I adapted by taking practice exams on zoom to get accustomed to spending a large amount of screen time in order to complete the final. The finals were different from normal zoom classes in that I had to spend a long time finishing one long task.”

The students of Preuss have been adapting to constant changes happening around them and doing what is best for the way they each work. Viewing school & work through different perspectives has helped the students see the brighter side of situations like these, allowing them to be versatile.

“Something that was positive about doing finals at home was the schedule. I felt less stressed because we had two classes a day instead of all four, ” Nguyen (‘25) acknowledges.