Corinne Gustafson (285) and Emma Hwang (285)

How effective are midterms for long-term knowledge retention for Central students? Is the toll on student mental health significant and worth it? These highly debated questions weigh on the minds of students and teachers this time of year. 

Every year, as the academic midway point at Central approaches, the week-long bout of testing rears its daunting head again. Midterm week bears itself upon us with an adjusted testing schedule, where students take cumulative tests consisting of any academic instruction since September. 

With midterm grading weighing in at twenty percent of the second quarter grade, these tests remain an extremely important and stressful part of Central’s academic culture. Since these tests weigh so heavily on quarter grades, and subsequently, final cumulative grades, they tend to weigh equally as heavy on student stress and well-being. Students thus tend to put large amounts of stress on themselves to ensure a good grade. 

Chelsea Liu (283) says that students are “just cramming information from throughout the first half of the year” and that the information will “fly out of [her] head afterward.” That idea of learning only for the sake of receiving a good grade nurtures a type of retention that only lasts for the duration of midterm season, only to be remembered and forgotten once again for finals season. It’s common for students to develop this sort of “just-as-long-as-I-do-well” mindset when it comes to substantial assessments like midterms. This can contribute to a decrease in the love and appreciation that students have for learning.

Another student’s point of view is the belief that midterms are helpful for long-term retention and overall benefit students more than they cause harm. As most students and teachers know, studying for midterms involves a large amount of reviewing concepts learned previously throughout the school year. Nica Jurlando (285) says that although she doesn’t like midterms, she believes that midterms “will be helpful in the long term because it encourages students to understand the material better and it will be helpful in higher education.” The question of whether or not midterms are conducive to long-term retention is a highly debated one. According to the E​​ducation Resources Information Center (ERIC Institute of Education Sciences), midterm exams have proven more useful for long-term retention in comparison to re-exposure to material. 

But are midterms a fair reflection of individual academic ability and comprehension? 

Some students argued that midterms can give students a false sense of learning ability, as testing can be an inaccurate measure, and this can reflect on grades. For Emma Glaser (285), midterms can serve as a skewed measure of knowledge and could “improperly show the intelligence that the student possesses.” Other students share this view, as midterms can so often make or break the second-quarter grade. Relying so heavily on the ability to test under pressure can create an unfair standard for student comprehension and also give students a disadvantage caused by the lack of acknowledgment of varying learning styles. 

Although student opinions about midterms vary, it seems as though this testing method will remain a part of Central’s academic routine.