During the year 1896-97, two years of high school work were given, designated as second and third year normal courses respectively. The first year normal (review of the common branches) and the second year preparatory were united into one class. They took the fifth reader and corresponding subjects. The first year preparatory took the third and fourth reader and subjects of like grade. The commercial students are here classified as preparatory. Their subjects were: theology, penmanship, orthography, arithmetic, grammar, typewriting and bookkeeping. A study of the ages of the one hundred and fifty who took preparatory courses is extremely interesting. Fifty-four were over eighteen years of age. Seventy-eight of them were from fifteen to eighteen. The ninety-nine who took third and fourth readers form an interesting group. Eighty-seven of them were over fourteen years of age. The oldest was thirty-six, two were twenty-six, one was twenty-five, and two were twenty-four. Following the year 1896-97, the preparatory school at Weber gradually declined. This was the natural course of events. As free schools and compulsory education became more and more effective in Utah, the number of young men and young women who reached maturity without having received the equivalent of an eighth grade education became less and less. The need of a preparatory school, such as given at Weber and the other Church Schools, gradually disappeared. The time must come when the preparatory school would be closed. The course must cease when the demand for it was satisfied. The Academy adapted itself to the change. As the preparatory school declined, the high school courses developed.