A big change has come to the WHBHS Regents schedule. Juniors took the English Regents, a test traditionally given in June, in January this year. 

The English Regents is made up of three parts, Part 1: Reading Comprehension, with 24 multiple choice questions, Part 2: Writing from Sources with an essay, and Part 3: Text-Analysis response with an essay. 

Mrs. Luciano, English department chairperson, said, “The Regents is skills-based and focuses on the skills students have been using for years.” Because the test is skills-based, it allows for flexibility within the curriculum.

To adapt to this change English students in 10th grade will start prepping at the end of the year and will continue this preparation up until January of their junior year. Then students will sit for their test and continue on with the rest of the curriculum. 

After speaking with juniors who sat for the test in January, it seems that having the Regents in January was a huge success.  Junior Sarah Keating said, “Getting one Regents out of the way will help so much in June, because it’s one test out of the way, leaving more study time for other subjects.” Having more time to study will hopefully help other test scores in different classes improve. 

By taking one test away from finals week in June it helps students have less back-to-back tests. Senior Megan Mercready said, “I wish we had taken the English Regents in January last year because I would have had a less stressful finals week.” 

Moving the test was very successful and has definitely helped current juniors and will continue to help future juniors.