The MFS Math Department announced on Tuesday, March 16 that it would not administer finals to students this June.

In an email from Katie LuBrant, Math Department Chair, students were informed that “as a department [we] do not want to add more stress to your [lives] at this time and also want to make the most of the time we have to prepare you for next year.” 

Using a Quaker decision making process, the entire department arrived at consensus on this decision being the most effective way to close out the school year. This decision was not made lightly, but was arrived upon with the students’ academic success and overall well being in mind. 

LuBrant noted, “we felt that the class time typically spent reviewing for finals would be better spent learning new concepts or summarizing the year in a less stressful manner.” 

After hearing this unexpected news from the math department, many Upper School students were left feeling relieved and felt as though they were no longer under quite as much pressure. Sophomore Vivian Messina said, “I saw it via one of my friends and was really surprised…and then I read the email and I was like ‘this is really good I’m really happy about this’ because it’s just one less thing to stress about.” 

This year has come with an unimaginable amount of stress and new challenges, and the Math Department’s decision to relieve as much of that as possible was one that was widely appreciated. 

Some also wondered what this may mean for the future of finals in other classes. LuBrant expressed that “the other departments must discuss what makes the most sense for their subject and what they think is best.”

Many other departments, including the English and History departments, have also cancelled their final exams for this year, and as Messina noted, this decision will “take the stress off of the end of the year and just make everything more enjoyable in general.”

According to LuBrant’s email, students and teachers alike will “continue to look for the small moments of joy” and will finish out all math classes without a final exam.