Is it just me or do midterms seem to be endless? It’s like the first three weeks of a semester is the grace period: the time when college is the rowdy, sparkling adventure we always thought it would be. After that, fun’s over, and exams pointlessly given the prefix “mid” seem to consume every minute of our lives until the end of the semester. Some exams are less dreadful than others, of course, but for my friends and I nothing is more daunting and horrifying than calculus.
No disrespect to the people that like calculus. In fact, I have a lot of respect for them. But to me, I would rather wear wet socks for a week than suffer through a calculus exam. Math is not really my shtick. Fortunately, my exam went pretty well, but this was not the case for everyone.
My roommate came home and announced the class average on her exam was a 37 percent. She and I are in different classes, but this news made me want to bury my face into a bag of Swedish Fish and cry into my pillow while watching “Dirty Dancing.” She had spent hours preparing for this test, as I’m sure many of her classmates had as well, and she had felt as though she had a sufficient understanding of the course and review materials.
Low test averages do not reflect a neglectful, unintelligent class of students. Rather, they represent a widespread lack of understanding that stems from either the professor or exam itself. College students, particularly at UW-Madison, are motivated. However, there is an occasional detachment between students and professor. When the students’ learning styles do not harmonize with a professor’s teaching style or examination style, or more simply, when the average class grade is very low, the blame should not necessarily be placed completely on the students.
We all know what its like to get an unsatisfying grade, but there is a difference between receiving a 70 percent and receiving a 30 percent. A 70 percent may show that there may have been a disconnect in understanding or a couple of mistakes made. A 30 percent, on the other hand, particularly when it is an average score of the whole class, is more likely to reflect the teaching or the exam, rather than the learning or preparing done by students. There is a difference between one student in the class scoring below a 50 percent and an average score of below a 50 percent.
Some exams are simply too difficult. Often students are forced to take exams that test beyond what has been covered in the class. For example, the exam my roommate just took asked about a topic that will not be mentioned in the book or the class for several chapters. Why would a student work or read ahead right before an exam? Exams should test what has been covered in class or elsewhere in homework. After all, what is to gain by administering an exam in which the projected average score is so low? I understand that professors would like to stretch their students, but an exam where the average is below 50 percent does not motivate students to study more; it demoralizes and discourages them. Students should not be tested on material that they have not previously been given the tools to answer. Stretching students is meant for discussions, lectures, or even labs—certainly not for exams.
Students at UW-Madison are hard working, intelligent and dedicated. Exams should be a time for them to demonstrate these qualities, not have them disproved.
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