So I may or may not be using this post to rant about college midterms. The best part of this situation though, is that I am currently working on a midterm essay even though it's not midterm yet. We have barely been back from winter break and all of a sudden these midterm exams and long papers are upon us. We are currently approaching the peak of midterms time so I decided to discuss why I feel that they truly do not matter.
For most people,this time of the semester is a stressful time as they attempt to bring up their grades from the beginning of the semester. On the other hand, it may be people trying to get a grade in the first place; lots of courses that do not provide regular exams or papers use the midterm as the grade calculator for the first part of the semester. Don't get me wrong, I understand that essays and exams are important and that they are how professors determine our grades, however I feel that the concept of midterms simply just instills fear into students without creating an opportunity for productive work.
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The essay I am currently writing is more free-hand, meaning that I can roll with the assignment as I see fit so long as I incorporate textual evidence form the sources we discussed in class. I appreciate the fact that I can mold the essay to sound how I wish, but because I am being graded more on the grammar and the integration of textual evidence, it seems to draw me away from actually reflecting on the concepts at hand.
Students who tend to stress out about midterms believe that their entire grade rests upon this exam, and often it does. For students in classes without regular assignments that get graded, the midterm is a make it or break it situation. If they fail, there is a large chance that they won't end up passing the course. One exam can completely tank their ability to receive credit for the course as a whole. This is where I see the overall issue. Rather than testing students on the applicability of the topics they learned, students must cram into their brains 7 weeks worth of information and pray to Jesus that they remember it all.
If midterms assessments became more practical and gave way for students to converse or apply their knowledge in more productive ways, or even more regularly, the pressure that they feel when exams roll around would be lessened and exam scores would probably rise.
Test anxiety is very real and those who suffer from it are always just trying to keep up with the rest of the kids in their classes. Rather than being able to effectively process and then communicate what they learn in class, students must keep it memorized for an exam that weighs them down in grades and in life. Midterms could be crafted in other ways that give way to all different students, and those that learn differently than others. Rather than using large exams or essays to examine a student's progress in class, professors could adopt an open ended and easier method that would take away the negative stigma of midterms.
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