Reaction to Midterm Cancellations
January 20, 2021
Usually, after Christmas and the arrival of the new year with new opportunities, it is a great time for the students at Morgan to prepare for midterms. Seniors who have all As in their classes are always exempt, but for the rest of the students, the midterms counted as 20% of their semester grade.
Now, what if I told you that there are no such things as midterms in 2021. That’s right, all students here at Morgan don’t have to worry about studying for midterms because they’ve been canceled for this year.
Assistant Principal Christopher Luther said that teachers should have more time with their students to help them prepare for them. However, because students are in different cohorts now, it’s hard for them to meet up with all of them. Also, the exam schedule is only 2 classes a day during the midterm week. So this would add stress on students to prepare for these 1-day tests that would count as 20% of their semester grade.
But it’s not just Mr. Luther who thought that it was a good idea that midterms were canceled. Our staff and students have the same opinion as Mr. Luther from a different perspective.
“All my classes are finals, not midterms. I give modified projects for fewer intensity purposes. I think it’s an okay idea”-Culinary Arts teacher Susan Murphy
“I think it’s a good thing that they are not happening because of the less amount of stress that I receive from my students. It also helps me and other teachers to teach more lessons than in previous years”- Chemistry Teacher Jessica Leis
“I think it was a very appropriate idea because of the current situation we are in right now. I don’t have students who have felt unhappy about cancellations and I have noticed that the stress levels have gone down since they were announced”- Special Ed. Teacher Marco Ferace
“My students are really happy. I am able to continue with new learning, and I can assign less work to my students. I am happy about midterms cancellations, and I think it doesn’t really represent the students all that much, and I don’t like midterms myself because I have to make materials for students for when the midterms come up”- Mathematics Teacher John Madura
“I am not even the slightest bit upset about cancellations, and I didn’t even think they were going to happen this year”-Christian Grade 10
“ I have no feeling about it. I also like taking midterms because I think they are there to make me remember what I learned throughout the first half of the year”-Sarah Gelven Grade 10
“The fact that there are no midterms makes me happy, and I think it’s a good idea because of the whole schedule change it would also make it too complexed”-Sofie Gaudet Grade 10
“I am very happy and relieved about midterms being canceled. I wasn’t so sure if they were going to be canceled, but now I know”-Calieer Ayer Grade 10
“I’m not upset about midterms being canceled because when the week of midterms comes up, I can get really stressed out about them”-Christopher Dowd Grade10
Well, it seems that everyone is happy about the midterms being canceled. It gives teachers a better opportunity to teach their students more lessons which is something that couldn’t really be done before. And it puts less stress on students who don’t like midterms or are just concerned about how well they do.
So now that midterms are canceled and all teachers and students are relaxed, we can all start the second semester knowing that our grades for both quarters 1 and 2 will count for semester 1. And who knows if we will have finals this year, maybe they will be canceled just like midterms. But that’s another story.