With the first semester coming to a close, students experience the excitement of the upcoming winter break and the stress of midterms. Dual enrollment students have another layer of snow to shovel with college classes ending Dec 8.

“I don’t feel very overwhelmed at this point,” sophomore Hlla Waregh said. “The semester for Eastern Florida ends around two weeks before winter break begins.”

Former dual enrollment student and current biology and science research teacher Sally Kempfer recalled her involvement with the dual enrollment program when she was in high school.

“As soon as we came back from Thanksgiving, we usually did a review and then we took our [college] exams, which actually gave me a lot of time off before my West Shore exams,” Kempfer said.

The pacing of Eastern Florida classes allows dual enrollment students to turn their full attention to the upcoming midterms that begin Dec. 19, according to junior Mariam Hassan.

“Having even two or three classes to study for at West Shore is so difficult because there’s so much stuff that we go over during the semester,” Hassan said.

Despite college courses being at an accelerated level, Waregh said she was more worried for midterms than her finals in college.

“I find West Shore exams to be more stressful,” Waregh said. “It’s five months of work jammed into one to two hours.”

Most college finals are composed of a large essay summarizing the subject, while high school midterms generally have an exam that runs through everything reviewed during that semester in class.

“In terms of difficulty, my [school] exams were always going to be harder,” Kempfer said. “West Shore holds us to this academic rigor and expectation that is unmatched across the community.”

By Amanda Madjid