Whenever-we-feel-like-it-terms

As I walked out of my English midterm last Tuesday—still wondering what the name of Beowulf’s king’s brother’s landlord’s sword was, or something like that—I found myself breathing a sigh of relief. Finally, after two long weeks of writing papers, catching up on reading, analyzing literature and pondering the prospects of finding life on extra-solar planets, it was over. All of my midterms were finally behind me, and in place of frantic studying, I could resume my usual activities of napping, editorializing, and trying to finish the Harry Potter series. At least until three weeks from now, when we all get the privilege of beginning to tear our hair out for the second time this semester.

That’s right folks—just when you thought it was safe to stop going to lecture again, here comes the wave of “second midterms,” looming on the horizon like a storm cloud over an all-too-short sunny day. It would be disingenuous to act as though I’m at all surprised by this peculiar concept—“mid-terms” administered at points well beyond the halfway mark of the semester—since, after all, bizarre testing procedures are par for the course here at Harvard. But even alongside atypical practices such as holding finals after winter break, the “second midterm” concept is a deeply frustrating one for students across the campus. While we all appreciate the opportunity to redeem ourselves (should things not go so well on the first midterm), we’d also appreciate the opportunity to lead normal, happy lives at some point during the months of October and November.

Professors and the Administration need to realize that a second set of equally weighted midterms isn’t the only or even the best way of giving students chances to improve their grades. Instead, there needs to be a designated period of about two weeks in each semester during which the first and only set of midterms will be administered. These tests can count for about 15 percent or 20 percent of the grade, just as they do now, and can fairly be expected to cover all material in the course up to the mid-point. Apart from these, professors can retain the cushion offered by the second midterms by giving two or three much smaller tests at points before and after the midterm. These little evaluations can count for perhaps 5 percent or 7 percent of the overall course grade individually, and so together will still amount to the same sort of safety net offered by a second midterm.

Besides maintaining the safety net, single midterms with smaller tests would actually be more effective educational tools than the single (giant) or dual midterm. Smaller tests will help students better retain information since they’ll be evaluated on a smaller range of topics, and will feel less compelled to cram half a semester of knowledge into their heads all at once. Most importantly, these tests will be dispersed sufficiently throughout the semester, perhaps even with a few in September and December, so that we only have to contend with one grueling period of concentrated tests in October and November.

Ultimately, its unlikely that professors and administrators will change their ways. Harvard has a nasty habit of clinging to its annoying little quirks even when presented with viable solutions. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to spend any more of my time trying to convince them—I need to study.



Ashton R. Lattimore, ’08, a Crimson editorial editor, is an English concentrator in Dunster House.