Jordan Brenner
Community Editor
It is no coincidence that midterm week ended on Friday the 13th. While I am not superstitious, having just completed the busiest week I have ever encountered in over three years at Milken makes me wonder. However, I can not say with confidence that I will retain any of the information I learned this week for longer than a few weeks at most due to the sheer amount of information that was crammed into my head. After all, isn’t the main point of school to learn useful and meaningful information that will be with you for the rest of your life?
I write this article in the hope that a change to the midterm schedule is made. Midterms should be spread out through several weeks for two main reasons:
First off, when there are multiple midterms in one week, a student’s highest quality of work is not represented. In my experience, it is extremely challenging to retain a semester’s worth of information for multiple classes, especially when the exams occur during the same week. I often mix up the information from different classes, similar to how some multilingual people switch languages mid sentence. This year, I confused a data type from Intro into Computer Science called boolean with a concept in AP Government. Luckily, I caught my mistake before handing in my work. There was simply too much information in my head at the same time for me to perform at my highest level in all classes.
The second reason why Milken’s midterm schedule should be reformed is that exams are not held before winter break. Unlike most other schools, Milken’s semester does not end before winter break. It is my belief that the only way to overcome the challenge of having multiple midterms in one week is to begin studying weeks in advance. However, Milken’s course scheduling forces students like myself to have to choose between studying over winter break or only have a week to review. Having to study for midterms over winter break prevents students from getting the vital time to regenerate and come back more focused in the new year. If students choose to utilize that time for relaxation, the week following break is not sufficient time for intensive, comprehensive studying. Either way, it is a lose-lose situation for students.
Criticizing the school is not something I am accustomed to and I feel obligated to mention that this issue is minor compared to what many students face in less fortunate areas. We are extremely fortunate to be attending Milken. That being said, the scheduling of midterms is highly frustrating and inconvenient for many students and it, therefore, should be addressed by teachers and administrators.