Midterm and finals week is an added stresser to each semester, forcing students to relearn four and half months worth of information from at least four different courses. With study guides brimmed with notes and stress levels rising higher than ever, it is no doubt that students dread the yearly week long testing. This school year, however, midterm and final testing have been canceled—most likely due to the overwhelming nature of the modified, COVID-friendly learning environment. 

During the initial shutdown last March, Township students were ecstatic to find out that finals had been cancelled due to COVID-19. This cancellation was carried over into the 2020-2021 school year. 

While administration didn’t directly release a statement to staff explaining why midterms and finals were canceled, Rachelle Impink, an MTHS mathematics teacher, concluded that they were canceled in order to reduce the workload for students because of all the changes this year. Impink also said that she believes academic security was a reason for this change, due to the large number of virtual students.

Sophomore Keira O’Neal is pleased with the idea of no midterms or finals because many of her classes are already stressful enough. “Some teachers don’t give you any slack with their assignments they hand out,” said O’Neal.  Not having to worry about studying for extra tests this year has really lowered her stress levels. 

Junior Nyah Khan stated that her stress level has decreased in the short run because of midterm cancellation, however she is worried about her ability to recall all the information in her classes for IB and AP exams at the end of the year.

“I haven’t learned anything this year because I have been fully virtual,” said Khan.

Now students are having to try a lot harder in their classes over a longer period of time, as opposed to breaking the curriculum in half with midterms and finals, which Kann views as a great way to review the material she learned within her classes. 

Impink feels that midterms and finals are not a productive way to review class material with students. If done well, midterms and finals can pose as a great method to help students review all the topics they’ve covered in their classes. 

For most courses, however, they are one large test filled with every topic they covered that semester, instead of just an overview of the course. “It’s like they’re just putting a bunch of unit assessments together,” said Impink.