“Now it’s just a week that we used to know”

Midterm week has always been a bittersweet week to look forward to at High School West. The week entailed coming to school (wearing the comfiest clothes in your closet, of course), taking a cumulative exam for an hour or two, going home, and then studying rigorously for the exam on the following day. Unfortunately, as many of you may have heard, midterm week is now “a thing of the past.”

Rather than dedicating a whole week to midyear exams, school administrators have made the decision that it would be more beneficial to eliminate midterm week entirely. After the schedule modifications caused by Hurricane Sandy last year, administrators decided that it is more effective to give cumulative exams during class periods, rather than losing a week of valuable learning time. The tests will no longer be counted as twenty percent of second quarter grades, but will instead be counted just as any other test given during the second quarter. “There is also much more material to be covered in the curriculums now,” says Mrs. Monez, a math teacher at Hills West.

Students have varied opinions toward the new and improved midyear exams. Many were upset with the change, because they found midterm week to be a useful time to thoroughly review the material from the first two quarters. “I am actually against [the removal of midterm week] because in addition to an already stressful period of cumulative exams, we have to deal with the normal workload of homework and labs! Midterm week helped to alleviate the stress and gave us time to really concentrate on each subject,” says junior Pooja Aradhya. However, many students prefer not having a midterm week, because the additional pressure to do well on exams accompanied it. Sophomore Danah Han says, “Although I have never experienced a midterm week due to Hurricane Sandy, I’m really happy about the new change. Even though we get off for the week, I think it’s just so much more added stress.”