Exam Week Scheduling This Year and Beyond
Image courtesy of NEA Today
By ALLISON BLAKE ‘22
Almost two months ago, Milton descended into a week unlike anything else the school year has to offer: exam week. Though, historically, Milton students have endured a week of sit-down exams, this year’s exam week featured a significant shift in scheduling. Instead of taking exams at the end of January, students finished their exams just before Winter Break.
With such an established tradition of January exams, what factored into the decision to move them to December? Ms. Sugrue, Academic Dean, says that the department chairs held a majority-rules faculty vote last winter “under time pressure to publish the next year’s calendar.” The decision originally focused upon logistics, with “barriers present in both December and January, and the faculty giving a slight advantage to December.” However, she recognizes that this year’s exam scheduling reaped benefits and costs beyond logistics alone, mentioning a lengthy Google Doc she made to list the pros and cons for students, faculty, curriculum, and co-curricular activities. Though she acknowledges the challenges of December exams, including seniors’ hearing back from colleges about early decisions, awkward game and practice schedules, boarders’ leaving campus before annual holiday traditions, and potential snow days threatening the tight schedule before break, she feels that the consensus from students and teachers alike has proved mostly positive. The Health Center even reached out to Ms. Sugrue to say that this year’s exam week was “especially different from a student care perspective,” indicating a marked decrease in student stress that she attributes to the split weekend and decreased amount of material covered on exams.
From a student perspective, Rebekah Cody ‘22 echoed Ms. Sugrue’s sentiment about the split weekend, enjoying “the two days between exams because [she] had five exams in a row, so [she] was able to study for [her] first three exams before the weekend and then refocus and study for [her] last two exams.” Beyond just the split weekend, this year’s schedule gave students time to pace their studying since it was distinctly spread out in comparison to last year’s condensed four-day schedule. While last year, many students took two exams in one day due to the shortened week, this year’s exams took place over six ‘exam days’. Additionally, this year’s December scheduling allowed students to complete their exams and then relax, free of stress, over the nearly three-week vacation: a luxury missing in previous years when many felt pressure to study over break in anticipation of January exams.
Despite these benefits, both Ms. Sugrue and math teacher Mr. Chiu note complaints from students who take elective courses, upperclassmen in particular, that December exams lead to a ‘second exam week’ in January. According to Mr. Chiu: “Though underclassmen probably took three to four sit-down exams, there are some juniors and seniors who have four papers due this week (in late January) because they didn’t have a December exam.” He says that, in the future, “there needs to be a balance of cross-department coordination because it doesn’t make sense for us to accidentally all decide on December or January.” Additionally, the extended exam schedule reduced the official review days to just two days from a full week in previous years; with a week of new material before the review days, students may have felt rushed in their preparation before the official exam period.
However, as a teacher, Mr. Chiu appreciates “that the three-week bit between Thanksgiving and Winter Break felt more targeted... and that December exams gave [him] the opportunity to teach differentiated things working off of the midterm before the semester ends.” He also remarked that “it’s way easier to grade and write comments [with December exams],” as he had Winter Break to grade exams instead of one long weekend.
With this year’s exam week in the books, what lies in store for next year and beyond? Ms. Sugrue and Ms. Wood, Registrar, say another majority-rules faculty vote in the coming weeks will decide next year’s exam schedule; as of right now, all information concerning future exams remains up in the air. Ms. Sugrue, who emphasized that next year’s decision represents the decision for next year alone, questions the purpose of an exam week to begin with, asking “should there even be an exam week?” and first and foremost “want[s] to focus on the solution best for students and the academic program.”