This week, students bask in relief that midterm week is over with and prepare to start off the second semester of the 2012-13 school year. The first exams were held on January 14th, and the last in-class exams ended on January 17th.
Exam week came with a handful of pros and cons. It was kind of advantageous, because even if you had a fourth period exam, students were completely done school by 1:10 PM. School started on time, since the first period exams began at 8:15 AM, but exam periods were only an hour and ten minutes. Most people had at least a few breaks between each exam throughout the week, giving them time to study and prepare for their next midterm. There was also no homework – obviously, since there were no classes – and students had plenty of time to study throughout the week. Everyone had lighter bags, seeing as you only brought with you exam necessities (pencils, pens, erasers, etc.) and whatever one felt they needed to study between testing periods.
While getting out of school early was a nice change, most athletes had to wait around after school until their practices start. Especially if they didn’t have a ride home or lived too far away to go home and come back. Time between exams was beneficial, too, but students couldn’t leave the facility and stayed primarily in the library or cafeteria. So students that had first period exams ending at 9:25 AM had to stay in one of the two aforementioned rooms even if they had fourth period exams beginning at 12:00 PM. There were some students who occasionally didn’t have breaks between exams, as well, and had to force themselves to adjust and spend another hour and ten minutes sitting still and racking their brain in a cold and buzzing-with-silence classroom.
Actual exams weren’t too brutal. As a freshman, I expected something similar to the placement test. Thankfully, all midterms felt like any other test, just a little longer and still familiar. Studying was easy considering most teachers gave each test that made up the midterm back for their students to study. It was tiring, however, to pour strenuously over textbooks in the week leading up to midterms, on top of regular homework, tests, quizzes, and classes.
As a whole, midterm week wasn’t bad at all. It was a pain to wait around for practices or have very spacious or very close exam times, but it was a calm environment to study in and somehow wasn’t nearly as pressuring as the week beforehand. Finishing exams were also a huge relief. Now we just have to start preparing for finals!