The midterms and finals are back! After a three year hiatus at Manheim Township, the return of these common assessments will bring a whole new level of stress and anxiety to the school year. 

Looking back at years prior, many things were halted and altered due to the pandemic. This year, these events have started to return to their normal routines and COVID-19’s main impact is behind us. The return of old traditions are seen again. Some of the main opportunities to return are fun and exciting, but this umbrella does not cover everything. These reappearances include midterms and finals. Most of the students here at MT have never even taken a midterm or final because they entered high school as the pandemic began. During the lockdown, many activities were stopped due to protocols put into place. Although life slowed down, many students still felt high levels of stress and anxiety with the constant changes, the social interactions (or lack thereof), and ongoing unknowns of the virus. 

These years in lockdown did have some positives in the school, one being that midterms and finals were eliminated for the time being. Focus was placed more on staying healthy and on top of content rather than looming assessments. The stress and anxiety that these returning tests will bring is the main concern for student health. School, in general, already brings a range of anxiety levels in each student. This can be evidenced through maintaining grades, accommodating extracurricular schedules, or simply completing daily homework assignments. The assessments already planned and in place for this school year are enough. On top of a packed syllabi assigned by teachers, there are AP tests and Keystones in the final months of the school year. What will midterms and finals measure? Will the addition of midterms and finals further affect the mental health of the students?

Test-taking is not the best way to test a student’s knowledge. Studies have proved this and show that they don’t accurately or effectively display what the student has learned. The school system is constantly testing students on content after content, packing their brains full of information that barely gets enough time to sink in before moving on to the next topic of study. The midterms and finals examine everything that has been covered so far in the year and tests the students to see what they have learned. Students may perform poorly on substantial testing because the assessments require access to a large amount of knowledge which is not optimal for adolescent brain development. Grade-level testing such as the midterms and finals also take away time from when progressive learning can take place. 

    The hard reality is that midterms and finals are coming. Preparation will affect most students no matter their degree of effort because these tests are a school wide exam, taking a toll on all students, in and out of the classroom.