Should there be an Exam Week?
At the end of January, students at UNIS underwent a series of assessments – many of them official “exams” – for the end of the semester. This article will explore students’ opinions on testing schedules and changes the school could make regarding exams, as making sure students are comfortable with their exam schedules is crucial.
According to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, assessments are one of the biggest stress factors for teenagers because of the challenge students face of balancing schoolwork with personal lives. In previous years, UNIS had integrated an Exam Week, which would allow all finals to be taken in the last week and a half of school. This allowed students to fully focus on their exams and have the rest of the day free. However, there was no exam week, and UNIS integrated tests with classes in hopes of reducing stress. There have been many mixed opinions on this change due to the pros and cons the new schedule has brought. There have been discussions in classrooms about this change, and sometimes, higher stress levels have been discussed.
Survey Responses
So what does UNIS think of the changes? To answer this question, I conducted a survey which was sent out to all Tut House students. It is important to note that there were a limited number of responses, and some people responded more than once.
To gain a deeper understanding, I added the question of “Why.” According to the survey, most T4s agree that there should be an exam week. Some respondents said that exam week reduces workload and prepares students for the IB exams in May. Others say that exam week allows higher grades because students can focus on their subjects.
Additionally, students were asked, “what changes would you make to exam week or this year’s testing schedule?” Many T4s mentioned either having an exam week, not allowing testing during the time, having longer block periods, or having the final tests have the same weight as normal tests. There has also been mention of how teachers should respect the official testing schedule in order to take away stress. Some T4s, however, mentioned that the current block period is fine.
Eleventh graders were then asked the same questions. As a T3 myself, I like the current schedule as I get very anxious about exams due to my strong dislike of testing. I find that the chance to interact with my peers and attend my favorite classes in between tests is a nice outlet for stress. A reason could be that my teachers followed the testing schedule. However, most people feel that exam week is better.
In the Survey, most T3s expressed Exam Week as being beneficial. However, more T3s than T4s feel that the current block schedule can be beneficial. The reasoning for wanting exam week is similar to that of the T4s, with many students feeling that the exams allow less stress, preparation for the IB, and a focus on the tests.
When asked about what changes the students would make, many said either to reduce the number of tests or to bring exam week back altogether. One student suggested allowing only 1 block for exams a day, allowing students to focus on school whilst also focusing on their tests. Another student said they would not make the change as the testing schedule had largely mitigated the number of tests per week. Despite this, there are still responses speaking of teachers not following the testing schedule.
Notably, many T2s (10th graders) had similar responses to the T3s and T4s, feeling that Exam Week is in fact beneficial.
However, T2s had more neutral opinions on Exam Week. When asked why, the T2s responded that although exam week was beneficial, IB exams were not upcoming for them, making the long exam format less urgent than it is for the older students. T2s felt that tests and exams in December should have equal weight to normal tests, taking away a portion of the stress.
Finally, T1 students were interviewed. T1s had not experienced the exam a week before, so their opinions were unformed.
Many T1s believed that there should be an exam week, however, there was a significant increase in students who had no opinion or liked this year’s arrangement. This could be because T1s have never experienced exam week, giving them nothing to compare to this year’s schedule. Some students mentioned that the thought of a big exam is stressful, which is my exact reasoning for my personal dislike of Exam Week. One student suggested that exam week should be brought back, yet the exams should be more spread out. Another student suggested that exam week should be brought back to prevent testing after winter break.
Student Interviews
Here are some interview responses from students I interviewed before winter break on the subject.
Should there or should there not be an exam week?
“Last year I kinda enjoyed it more…now you have less time to study…and before we had study days…so I think not having a study day hurts the student’s grades more…and the tests are taken more seriously so the teacher puts more study guides on… I think its kinda a shame that they removed it…”
Michael T3
“I think it’s better to have exam week as it gives us more time and gives us more freedom. “
Sophia T2
“Um, I think I personally enjoyed exam week because we had more time to study, and we also got to end school a bit earlier, and I felt that it was a little bit easier for all the tests. Versus me having a lot of tests coming back in January.
Smith T3 (student council)
“I think this year is VERY stressful, and a lot of times we even try to implement a schedule for which weeks we have which tests. But I don’t think it’s even working because there were multiple times this year in which I had to advocate for a test being on the wrong week. And yeah, I feel like is really not helpful for students.”
Lucy T1
Would you like an exam week?”
No, I would not prefer that because then I would not have any time to study for anything. Because if I had two tests a day and they were big exams, then I would be in DEBT from studying for so many tests!”
Lucy T1
“I like exam week because I think the block schedule is more helpful…and I don’t think it’s that much stress as we get more time to prepare. We have exams anyway. You know, without exam week.”
Irene T2
“I feel like Exam week takes away a week of classes.”
Alex T3
What changes would you make?
“Bring exam week back for at least one week. It wasn’t that much of a waste of time. And even without exam week, I feel that I’m not learning more than I am if we had exam week.”
Sophia T2
“I would say we have more than one study day… it would be kinda interesting if you could choose the subjects and which days you wanna take it. For instance, if Spanish is super easy for someone but math is super hard, they might choose to take Spanish and math on the same day…so then they don’t study for one exam as much as for the other.”
Aramis T3 (student council)
“I think there should be, what’s it’s called… the teachers should have mandated time for tests so the tests are more overwhelming.”
Solal T3
“Perhaps no homework?”
“Actually no, because I feel like the homework helps prepare for the tests.”
Solal T3
“Um…honestly not much. I like what we have going on.”
Jelane T3
“It would be good if teachers were not forced to give us final exams…”
Alessandra T4
“I would just want the regular exam week back.”
Alim T3
Teacher Interviews
I also talked to some teachers during lunch and free periods to understand the change from an educator’s perspective.
Mr. Staccone – The IB coordinator for T3s and T4s
Q: Should there be an exam week?
“Well, I think students need authentic assessment from the IB model, especially in T3 and T4…the question of a December week or a February/March week… is an interesting question.”
Q: What have you noticed this year?
“I have 21 total students in my T4 global politics class, and only 15 showed up for my period 1 exam today. I was not pleased.”
Q: “Would you change anything?”
I can indicate that there seems to be a high level of stress from exams. I would add that a benefit of not having exams is increased teaching time. There was a visit from New York City Commissioners on Monday, and we did some good learning…but I do understand that stress is an issue, and there is a major difference from this year and last year.”
Ms Lukas – Guidance counsellor at UNIS.
Q: What have you noticed this year?
“The feedback that I’m hearing is that students are experiencing a lot of stress without that exam week. As kids are still being tested and can have more than two tests, as with exam week 2 was the limit. And students can still have homework.”
Q: “Would you change anything?”
“I would say as a counsellor sometimes the extremes come… I’ve also been randomly asking people to get more representative voices, and students say that there is more stress”
Dr. Edwards – Guidance counsellor at UNIS.
Q: Should there be an exam week?
“There may have been more anxiety around it, but it also allowed for a study day…so in a way, if students are taking summatives, I would hope it’s less stressful. We still need to work on what we have now.”
Q: “How have stress levels changed?”
“One marked difference is I cannot remember any meltdown as would have taken place during exam week. Students have reached out through this but for classes on tests.”
Q: “How would you change what we have?”
“This year is the first time summatives were given in class – it should be that students have no homework and that would reduce a lot of stress.”
Final Thoughts
Many students and faculty have agreed that having exam week is better as it reduces stress and testing anxiety amongst students whilst giving them room to relax outside of tests. In my own opinion, I feel like not having exam week allows students to learn more content as well as have a higher chance of interacting with peers. Additionally, I feel that without the formal title “exam week,” stress over the tests are heavily reduced. What do you think about this issue? Should there be an exam week?
