It appears BCIT students are entering what they call ‘midterm season’, which in my opinion is a misguiding name. ‘Midterm season’ implies there is a start and an end to writing midterms somewhere in the middle of the term. This is not really the case. In many programs’ ‘midterm season’ starts a few weeks into the term, after there has been enough course material covered to justify having a test, and operates until exams start.
I recently spoke with a girl who lives in my building, she told me last term she had 9 midterms in one week. This was after she told me that her 6 midterms this week didn’t seem so bad in comparison. I had a midterm last week too. Luckily it was only one midterm; this week I have another. I ended up feeling pretty lucky it was one and not 6.
The stress:
I believe the anxiety associated with midterm writing is one of the main stressors that students have to deal with and some of us are just better at it than others. I have heard the argument that standardized testing is unfair because all students learn differently and are able to express their knowledge differently. To this, I agree. Some people are incredible at writing multiple choice tests (not me) and some are great at long answer questions that allow them to express their knowledge (more up my alley), so I guess a mix of the two is the best way to go. Coming up with suitable approaches of testing students has got to be pretty difficult for professors.
The issue:
My only big hold up with the university testing system is this; the way we are taught and tested doesn’t set us up to remember the information on a long term scale. I have a pretty average working memory, I have a biology degree from UVic and took A LOT of tests to get it. Now that was only a few years ago. If you gave me a test from my third year molecular biology course today, I would not do very well.
Solutions:
Is there a way to study information and be tested on it so that when you write the test the first time and get 85%, you could write it again 3 years later and get the same score? All without cramming the night before? I believe the answer is no. You can be introduced to the information, asked to study it and write a test a short period of time later, but if you want to recall it down the road there needs to be some form of constant upkeep. This could be exposure to the information through work or more schooling or re-studying the info which would hopefully be easier the second time.
BCIT has multiple resources that contribute to student Wellness, especially during the stressful midterm season!