Throughout the week of January 22, 2024, midterms were administer at Ward Melville High School. Although the tenth through twelfth graders had off from school, they still had to come in during certain time blocks for their midterms. From what I observed, many sophomores and juniors had exams almost every day of the week, while seniors only had one or two exams–most likely because they took fewer classes or electives. A junior, I had four midterms to take: AP US History on Monday, English Language Arts Regents on Tuesday, Physics Honors on Thursday, and AP Psychology on Friday.
Personally, the best part of midterms week was that we did not have to wake up very early and spend long days at school—as I was in school for around two hours for my exams. However, for our midterms, students had to do a lot of preparation. I saw that students often started studying up to a week in advance, and studied everyday leading up to their exams. Midterms week was a very stressful week for many students, especially for those who had many tests. Fortunately, the exams are now over and, for most people, they generally went well.
When speaking amongst my peers I found that there were a few problems with some of the tests though. One problem was that in the conflict room, (a room for students who had to take their test later because they had two tests scheduled at the same time) there was a lot of noise and distractions for the students taking tests. One boy, upset by this, said, “It was so hard to take my test. There were people walking in, often talking, every ten minutes, and even worse, there was a teacher talking loudly with a frustrated student as they fixed his Chromebook.”
Another problem was with the Physics Honors midterm. One room taking this test received a copy of the test that was incorrectly printed by the copying machine. There were random questions missing from the students’ tests, with some even receiving the answer key within their test booklets. Though these problems were caught and solved early on in the test, the students in this room found it difficult to focus with all of the distractions and amendments made to the test. They ended up having five different packets to turn in because of all the updates made to their exams. As a result of this problem, physics teachers decided to drop the multiple choice section and only grade the short answer questions. They went further by only counting the test if it helped the student’s grade, due to the fact that many individuals failed the test. Despite these problems, the rest of midterms week went pretty smoothly.
My tests went well. I found my history exam to be pretty easy, as well as my English Regents exam. The physics exam I found hard, especially because I was in the room that had a lot of problems. Finally, my psychology exam worked out well, though studying for, and taking the test, was tedious. I had to memorize a few hundred terms, which was 135 questions long. Overall, though, I was happy with how midterms week went, and I was proud of the grades I received.
The midterm exam week of the 2023-2024 school year went pretty well, despite a few bumps. Many students and teachers were pleased with how the tests went and enjoyed the time off.
