By Amelia Brown ’18
Creative thinking. Global thinking. Critical thinking. Communication. These are the student lens values we’re supposed to be learning in every class. Yet one of the biggest tests of the year consists of sitting quietly, bubbling in a scantron and trying to remember the content crammed the day before. I don’t see that as an accurate reflection of the skills learned in a course. Midterms are coming up fast and the only thing to do now is cram, but, in future years, midterms should be abolished.
First, let me clarify that a halfway check-in to review what we have learned is not bad. The standard midterm test, on the other hand, is the problem. Even Harvard Magazine reported that for classes at Harvard College, “The assumption shall be that the instructor will not be giving a three-hour final examination.” If Harvard College has started disowning the traditional midterms, it wouldn’t be far fetched for us to as well.
I don’t think that I need to tell you that midterms cause stress and that stress is bad, but just incase: Midterms cause stress. Stress is bad. The time leading up to the test, during the test and after the test is filled with stress, which, in turn, leads to other negative side effects.
The week leading up to the dreaded midterm exams is filled with three a.m. nights, five cups of coffee, eye strains and empty boxes of tissues. According to BBC Radio 1, exam stress actually can cause “difficulty getting to sleep or difficulty waking up in the morning, constant tiredness, forgetfulness, unexplained aches and pains, poor appetite, loss of interest in activities…”
While giving out cookies during midterms is nice, it doesn’t combat stress. Currently, the administration is looking for better ways to reduce student stress. Instead of making changes to the daily routine, like implementing a block schedule, eliminating midterm exams would be a welcomed and effective policy.
The stress continues when we finally make it to the week of the tests. In theory it sounds nice that they’re only half days, but the time spent after school is dominated by studying for the upcoming midterms instead of decompressing.
Finally, the weeks after can go downhill based on the midterm results. Many students worry about the fact that the midterm makes up 10 percent of the final grade, but if you really crunch the numbers, it won’t affect your grade drastically one way or the other. The change that it can cause though is in morale. I’ll be honest, all of my midterm grades last year were significantly lower than any grade I had ever gotten in each of the classes. Getting bad grade after bad grade, all on the same day, took a huge toll on my overall confidence.
The next few weeks it was hard to get focused. Even the next two quarters were just not the same. And it’s not just me. A University of Michigan study found that 80 percent of college freshmen said that their self-worth was based on academic competence. So, it only makes sense that when academic competence is shattered by bad midterm grades, self-esteem and self-worth go way down.
Like I said before, a halfway check-in is important to make sure the teachers are teaching what they’re supposed to be teaching and that students are learning what they’re supposed to be learning. But for a school that focuses on creative thinking, global thinking, critical thinking and communication there are better options than sit down tests.
Some classes have started to move away from the traditional midterm. Particularly, social studies classes have been known to give projects, discussions or no midterms at all. It’s a good start. But doing more group or individual projects, videos, designing and teaching lesson plans, hands-on labs, socratic seminars or debates, even if they’re still 10 percent of final grades, could all test a classes content while not being as dreaded and harmful.
