Midterms: For Better or For Worse?

For once, I am not lost. I know exactly where I stand with public school midterm exams. To put it bluntly; they’re bullshit. Who decided that it was a good idea to set these kids up for disaster? All it’s teaching them is to look forward to disappointment. Most high school students actually care about their grades and genuinely want to do well. So why is it fair that those students can go all semester riding on the honor roll, and then pierce their grade with a mandatory midterm exam? It’s outrageous. To hear from a teacher that you need a 100% perfect score just to maintain your already struggling grade is terrifying. Students are already being tested on important information in all classes on a weekly basis, and teachers can barely maintain those reasonable grading deadlines. On top of regularly scheduled tests and semester exams, the public school system has also issued SOLs, ACTs, SATs, and PSATs to name a few. What this teaches high school students is that these standardized tests are either going to make or break their futures, and it should not be that way. I would not want my kid to grow up in fear of failure.  Parents alone put so much pressure on their children to always get the highest score possible, and often reprimand their children for not achieving their expectations. We want young people to succeed because they’re the next generation and one day they will have to make the executive decisions. However; the public school system is going about it in the wrong way. It’s engraving a terrible message into young teenagers’ minds. My mother, a high school counselor at a Loudoun County Public School, has made it more than clear that she is against our midterm exams, knowing that “they hurt more than they help”. Yes, college is important and exams are a big deal, but if a kid can’t pass their midterm and hinders their GPA, they won’t get there. Midterm exams should no longer be mandatory across America. Those who believe they need a semester exam should be provided with such from any and all teachers available. As for the rest of the student body, they should be able to salvage what is left of their grade. If you had to do it over, would you?