During the 2012-2013 school year, Ridge High School eliminated the long-standing midterm and final examinations and replaced them with the new quarterly assessments. In place of the two exams, for which the school arranged a special exam schedule, teachers administer quarterly assessments once every marking period, without canceling the day’s classes. Quarterly assessments are equivalent to 15% of the students marking period grades, as opposed to the highly weighted midterms and finals, which were 20% of the final grade. Sounds great, right?
Not particularly. I remember the happier and simpler days of my sophomore year, when midterms and finals were still in effect. Although I never enjoyed the intense cramming, I relished the early dismissals and the lenient schedule. If I had just a single exam on a particular day, I could either wake up late or leave delightfully early. Either way, the arrangement meant one thing: more sleep!
However, when a multitude of surveys revealed that students felt too stressed and overworked, the school attempted to make some changes. In 2012, after much discussion, midterms and finals were finally discarded and quarterlies were introduced. As per the administration, eliminating the special schedule for midterms and finals would add as much as ten instructional days, or about six hours of instructional time per class, during the year. A reduction in stress also was seen as an advantage. But while the intentions of quarterlies stem from a desire to reduce stress for high school students, the format of these exams do not pave the way for a “stress-free” learning experience.
In a letter sent home to Ridge parents on March 14, 2012, one of the listed reasons for eliminating midterms and finals was to “reduce student stressors and discourage cramming for unrealistic assessments” as well as to “support the development of the end of marking period assessments which more accurately reflect student retention and discourage rote memorization of material.”
However, the Board of Education failed to realize that students were forced to cram before midterms and finals since they were taught new material days before the exam. This new material finds its way onto midterms and finals, thus leaving the students stressed because they do not have much time to prepare. In this sense, quarterlies are truly no different. Indeed, the exams are now once every quarter and encompass less material. However, teachers still teach new material right before the exam. Inevitably, stress and cramming persist.
School district policies aimed at reducing student stress has run into gray areas. Probably one of the biggest issues with quarterlies is the additional learning and homework during testing week. Rather than taking the time to be well prepared for each quarterly, the current schedule requires students to learn new material each day and complete homework for the next day in the midst of testing.
According to the Huffington Post, teenagers today “constantly fight distractions”; that is, our generation is not particularly adept at maintaining concentration when so many different factors surround us. Some may argue that a student’s quarterly grades definitely reflect this. If today’s teenagers are more susceptible to these spurts of distractions, perhaps quarterly exams in the midst of regular, content-filled school days are not the best idea. How can one expect to focus on these large assessments when students are not given adequate time to prepare for these tests?
And when kids have a 5th period quarterly, they spend periods 2, 3, and 4 studying for it—ignoring the new material that is being taught in their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th period classes. Learning new material during quarterlies is nearly impossible simply because students with exam fever (most students at Ridge) are studying for other tests rather than actually paying attention in class. Sure, a teacher may have extra time to teach the material, but if nobody’s listening, those days are still lost.
Amy Zhong ‘14 shares her opinion on the topic of exam stress. “I understand that the school is trying to save time by having quarterlies, but the fact is that kids loved the midterms and finals and the afternoon or mornings off – it alleviated a lot of stress. Plus, no homework!”
As the debate continues, many members of the student body seem to disagree that midterms and finals were the real bearers of stress. While the parents were asked about the stress of students, it seems as though they failed to consider the opinion of the students themselves.
Many teachers have voiced their views on the new quarterly takeover. While some are in favor of the new system, others are not quite as elated. This especially holds true for many of the AP teachers at Ridge. In preparation for the AP exam, many of the teachers utilized the midterm as an opportunity to further prepare students by creating a test of AP-style questions. Without this two-hour long testing period to determine the knowledge of these AP students, teachers find it more difficult to focus on problem areas before the AP exam.
Some teachers, such as Ms. McCarthy, ask that her AP Government and Economics class take a practice exam outside of school hours that is the length of a standard midterm or final; she felt it was crucial that her students be exposed to these AP-style exams in order to enhance their performance on the day of the actual exam.
She states, “I have mixed feelings about replacing midterms/finals with quarterly assessments for my AP classes. In the past, I had utilized the 2-hour midterm to administer an AP economics practice exam. At the end of the year, when I have my students complete an anonymous survey, they overwhelming valued taking the practice exam. As a result of the change in assessment format at Ridge, it is now more difficult to find time to administer the practice exam in my AP classes.”
While quarterlies are still manageable, one cannot help but feel a sense of nostalgia looking back at midterms and finals. Though it was a bumpy journey at times, the late mornings, the early dismissals and the relaxed schedule truly set midterms and finals apart from the current quarterly exams.
Hopefully we will not be thrust into a new form of testing just when we finally begin warming up to the controversial quarterlies. But the fact remains that eliminating midterms and finals is not the real answer for reducing stress and improving student grades. With either system of testing, the issue is not the test itself. The issue truly is whether students are given adequate time to prepare.