I’ve noticed that a good portion of freshmen happen to have 5th period off, so I got to thinking, why is that? I’ve found a few interesting things while talking to the counselors about this coincidence. For one, the reason freshmen make up the majority of the population with time off is because the students’ schedules are filled from the upperclassmen to the lowerclassmen.This means that the seniors are first priority and get their elective spots filled first, as it is important that they get all of their credits. Then the juniors’ schedules are filled, then the sophomores’ schedules, and, finally, the freshmen’s schedules are made.

When this happens, it causes a smaller fraction of the freshmen to have their electives filled 5th period. .They are forced to have an off period during that hour, and because 5th period is the elective period, freshmen tend to have it off.

Counselor JillianBenson stated, “Well, I don’t think this impacts learning too much, but it might affect their [the freshmen’s] schedule down the line”. 

While having an off period does allow for downtime and make-up work, it might affect the way that the freshmen get their school credits and how much work they have to do down the line. For example, taking one less class freshman year might mean that they have to take an extra one in future years.

So I learned that just over half of the freshmen I talked to have an off period, which means that the probability of having an off period as a freshman is about 60%. All of this boils down to the fact that I got unlucky when I got my schedule on the first day of school. I also learned that in a group of four freshmen, at least one of them is likely to not have an off period.

I went back and asked Benson how this might affect the way homework is completed. She replied that “this might give an advantage to the people who have an off period, as far as getting homework done goes.” 

After going down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to find out how this might affect study habits, I found that having extra study time allows for the formation of better study habits. A quote from Freshman Taylor Brisby, “I would say having fifth off definitely affects study habits. I complete most my homework in my off period”.

A second opinion from Freshman Lillian Kuberry, says this; “If I didn’t have an off period, most of my work wouldn’t get done”. So I would say that having an off period does affect students, positively. Overall, I would say that the reason that so many freshmen have 5th off is because it would allow them to adjust better to the school schedule, and it allows students to get more work done better.