Students spend hours studying each year for the midterms in January. In the Goffstown school district, the school requires students and teachers to provide a midterm in each class. A midterm will be based on everything the student has learned in the past two quarters here at the high school. The midterms will take place during the week of January 15, 2024. Students will take two exams a day and will be dismissed at 11:30 should no other make-up exams take place for the student.
The original schedule was a day off Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Exams will start Tuesday at 8:00. The first exam will be period one at 8:00-9:30, period three from 10:00-11:30, then make-up exams from 12:30-2:00 if a student misses a class exam. This schedule will continue regularly throughout the week with Wednesday being periods two and four, Thursday periods five and seven, and Friday being periods six and eight.
Students this year lucked out and got an extra day off. Because of the weather, Tuesday became a remote learning day for students to study and review for the exams the following day. The school has now put three exams a day, following our June finals schedule. Wednesday will consist of period one during 8:00 to 9:30. Period three from 10:00 to 11:30, then an hour lunch break from 11:30 to 12:30. The final exam of the day will be period five from 12:30 to 2:00. This will repeat on Thursday with exam periods two, four, and six. Friday’s schedule will be period seven from 8:00 to 9:30 and period eight to finish off finals from 10:00 to 11:30. Makeup exams will still take place after the period eight exam Friday.
With the exams coming up many kids are crammed with studying and their regular homework. Focusing more on what the teachers do for students leading up to exams, when asking Kaylee Wiggin, sophomore at Goffstown High School, if teachers have put a lot of stress on students for midterms, she replied “Yes, especially with the homework on top of reviewing for midterms.” She also mentions how most teachers talk about midterms in almost every class, but some teachers have waited until only two classes before to inform their students of what the midterm for that class will be like. On top of this, many teachers have handed out a study guide, or done a review in class, but some teachers have waited until the last minute. When interviewing Mollie Winer, a freshman at the high school, she says “Waiting until the last minute adds more stress.” A healthy balance between what the teacher assigns and what the students can actually get done is crucial especially during this stressful time of the year.
On the students’ side of studying and preparing, many students spend every night preparing for midterms opposed to the typical half hour, to an hour of studying for a test. Kaylee backs this up by mentioning, “I’ve studied every night so far. Compared to a test where I can spend 30 minutes to an hour studying.” This is a huge difference in study time and the amount of hours kids are putting into the test. Students also need outlets to ease the stress. Kaylee and Mollie both say allowing themselves enough downtime after studying helps them stay calm and not become overwhelmed. In the end students can only study for so long each day without needing breaks. Many students have to stop for breaks or to complete other homework assigned to them on top of the studying and reviewing, as review guides are mandatory completion for some classes.
Kaylee states, “I feel like there is a lot of unnecessary stress compared to just having a normal test that covers what we’ve learned.”
