No Sixth Period: Mistake or a Good Choice?

By Lola McGinnis

At HHS, seniors are able to sign up for a no sixth or a no first period but seniors tend to go for the no sixth period option. Having a smaller schedule is desired by many students especially when it comes to their senior year. There’s already a lot going on when you’re a senior and having a full schedule on top of it isn’t always the ideal choice for students. While this would seem like an easy thing to sign up for, there are various requirements a student needs to have met in order to do so. Some requirements include: having A-G requirements completed (minus a fourth year of English and a year of Government), a valid reason (medical appointments, job, family reasons, etc), making sure there wouldn’t be a gap in your schedule, and more which I would highly recommend talking to your counselor about this if you are interested and seeing if it would work out for you.

Talking to a senior here at HHS, they were asked questions about what it’s like having a no sixth period to which they said “Feels nice. I have more time to balance my schedule and do more things”, Regarding their routine now with more free time, “I just go home and just have like free time and then like I get more time to do my assignments, like I have more freedom to spread them out rather than having to do them like as soon as they get there or something.” Having a no sixth period has also allowed them to “…have some time for myself and like having that extra time, I’m able to have more time for myself and balance it [schedule] in a better way.” When asked about if they would recommend students having a no sixth period senior year, they said “Yes, it definitely helps you. Even if you’re taking like advanced courses, like just with like college apps or you could do scholarships, whatever you have to, an extra job, whatever, like you have more time to do something other than just school.”

Being asked the same questions, another senior stated “It feels so nice not having a sixth period. I feel as if I have more free time” when it comes to how it feels not having a sixth period this year. In terms of if it feels weird going from a full schedule to one less class, the senior said, “…it felt weird…For the last three school years it was always the same routine but even if it felt weird at first, it was totally worth it.” A typical after school routine for this senior usually “…consists of doing my homework and getting as much as I can out of the way after having some time to do my own things.” “Not having a sixth period has allowed me to do more things in a day without coming home as exhausted as the last few years. I now have more time to do activities I actually enjoy…” when being asked about what this free time has allowed them to do. As for recommending a senior having a no sixth period, they stated “I would recommend a student into not having a sixth period their senior year for a chance of having more freedom, especially during their final year.”

A third senior stated, “It feels really nice” when it comes to not having a sixth period this year. For this senior, when it came to the difference between one less class and a full school it was only, “..weird at first but I eased into it super quickly.” Despite this senior not having a sixth period their after school routine is “The same, I just wait for my sister since she has a sixth and then go home” but that extra has still allowed them “To just relax and to also work on homework or to also just talk to my friends.” This senior would recommend a no sixth period “If you have [enough] credits and you’re not missing anything.”