Exam Week 2026…Kudos!
By TMP 43rd Editorial Board
At Milton, students’ wishes for change in the school—whether regarding dining hall hours, academic policies, or sports credits—too often remain confined to casual Stu conversations, circulating as complaints without emerging in the blaze of constructive action. This familiar passivity achieves little beyond collective venting. This year’s exam season offers a different story, one that demonstrates that intentional advocacy, in place of closed-off complaining, can create tangible policy change.
In the leadup to exam week, the school has implemented several changes that deserve recognition. The administration has expanded academic support significantly, refurbishing, for example, the Academic Skills Center’s collaboration with both TutorMilton and the Peer Writing Tutors. Increased Skills Center availability, supported by student-led evening drop-ins and, most notably, encouraging teachers to hold drop-in sessions during the week before exams, have ensured consistent access to help across all departments. Communication has also improved markedly. Monday’s ASP presentation not only clarified details that had been tweaked for this year, but also made clear to teachers that exam weighting must be announced in advance. While midday turn-in times for project-based assignments may summon some frowns from our readers, we ultimately believe that, in their standardization, they incite less procrastination than last year’s more permissive blanket 3:00pm deadline.
More broadly, the post-Covid decision to administer exams in classrooms rather than large halls constitutes another substantial improvement. The shift, according to Academic Dean Heather Sugrue, “lowered people’s stress levels,” as well as simplifying and making more accessible accommodations for students with extra time. Moreover, since 2024, the responsibility of correcting conflicting exam blocks has shifted from students to administrators: where double-booked students once had to add themselves to a queue in order to resolve their conflicts, the Registrar’s Office now proactively handles such cases.
The Milton Paper acknowledges the potential of directives for standardization to harm teachers’ academic autonomy. Among Milton’s finest qualities is the diversity of teaching styles we host, and we can easily picture talented teachers feeling suffocated by AP curricula, textbook worship, and other mandates from on high. As the Deans’ Suite clarifies its expectations of teachers and certain departments shift further toward comprehensive policies, we hope the immense benefits of teacher autonomy will receive their due attention. Nonetheless, when it comes to stripping away the convolutions of Assessment Week, we welcome some standardization. We observe that much of the improvement surrounding exam week has resulted from intentional and proactive student-driven organization. For example, the Student Wellness Association and Meditation Club have, throughout the year, advocated for the administration to pay greater focus to balancing student workflow and supporting student health. These efforts have manifested not only in the form of specific initiatives, such as Meditation Club’s pre-exam week evening meditation sessions, but also indirectly in the form of administrative changes. Moreover, we commend the Academic Dean’s agreement, earlier this school year, to follow the Class I Council’s advice to discourage major assignment turn-ins from coinciding with early college deadlines. Meanwhile, past years have seen various student-led pushes for grading standardization, such as Teresa Li ’26’s Paper article “Grading Preferences and Requirements Should be Clarified,” and the 2024 SGA-led petition for grading transparency on math exams. These efforts deserve partial credit, this year, for the clear broadcasting of guidelines surrounding exam week weighting, as well as several Milton departments’ seriously considering, or creating, department-wide grading rubrics.
Exam week is a stressful time, and these positive changes, motivated by students and adults alike, undeniably help alleviate this stress. They demonstrate that intentional, proactive advocacy causes tangible change and that students ought not assume that administrators will disregard their opinions. Do not retreat into cynicism: we have much to be grateful for, and with focused and dedicated efforts, we can expand that list, at Milton and beyond.