Now that we have been back to school for six weeks and we are about to enter another hellish midterm season, we have to address one of the big problems with midterm and exam season: exams on the weekend.
I know some people will argue that exams on the weekend will help the process of getting home quicker for the holidays or the summer break.
Well, if you finished on Dec. 21 like I did, all you got was 13 days to go home and see your family.
The bigger problem is not with the exams at the end of the year, but the midterm exams during the regular term that are on weekends.
This is mostly a problem for business and economics students, but that’s not to say that other degrees don’t have them too: just ask the health science majors taking anatomy this year.
Students learn a bunch of complicated material in class on Tuesday and Thursday and then on Saturday or Sunday they go in and write a 30 per cent midterm.
After a long week, there’s no time to even review the material that we were tested on just days before.
There’s no way you can be successful when you don’t have time to recuperate — or when you don’t have time to study.
There isn’t time to fully recover in the form of the weekend — the only time they are given to unwind and relax.
For me, I can’t really complain. I’m a white straight male, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know people who have had to write exams on days reserved for religion, family or sports.
My roommate was in economics before he transferred to political science.
Last winter semester, he had a midterm every weekend for about a month and a half.
If students don’t have financial aid or a savings fund from their parents, they will be working their asses off to be able to go to post-secondary school.
Back at home, I know a few guys who went to Conestoga College who worked every weekend when they were in school.
Weekends are the prime time for students to work for a few hours to get some extra cash for food or to start to pay off tuition for the next semester.
Weekend exams can easily interfere with students’ ability to earn the cash we desperately need.
It’s so easy to avoid — just put the exams on a weekday.
For example, I was in business law last year and we had our midterm on a Friday instead of on a weekend.
If any department uses time as an excuse to do exams on the weekends during the year, I will gladly prove them wrong with this example.
So with that, let me just say this one thing to the department heads who schedule midterms.
We are number one in student satisfaction, so why not give the students what they want and get rid of weekend exams?
They’re a pain in the ass and interfere with people’s ability to work and unwind.
It’s just not worth it when there’s a better alternative that is so much easier for students to swallow.