This semester, Tech students get a little more time during finals week to prepare for their exams.

The Academic Calendar was altered last year to replace Dead Week with Final Instructional Class Days and Reading Periods. Final Instructional Class Days and Reading Periods have been incorporated into final exams to break up the week, allow for a conflict period at the end, and provide a buffer before Commencement.

The Spring 2016 end of semester schedule is as follows:

• April 25-26: Final Instructional Class Days.
• April 27: Reading Period (no exams).
• April 28: Reading Period from 8 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. (no exams).
• April 28: Finals begin in the afternoon.
• May 3: Reading Period from 8 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. (no exams). Finals resume in the afternoon.
• May 5: Final exams end.

When the Academic Calendar Task Force looked at peer and University System of Georgia (USG) institutions, Georgia Tech was one of the few universities that did not already have a reading period of this kind. In many cases, Tech students were found to spend more time in class than at peer and USG institutions. 

“The fact is that Georgia Tech students spend a lot of time in school,” said Laura Margaret Burbach, former vice president of Academic Affairs for the Student Government Association (SGA). Burbach participated in the task force and helped draft a white paper from SGA on the topic.

Other recent changes to the Academic Calendar include the addition of class holidays around July 4 and Thanksgiving and a new guideline for when to begin the Spring semester.

Learn more about the task force and the recommendations it made in April 2015.

See a Spring 2016 finals schedule provided by the Student Government Association.