School starts at either 8:00 or 10:00 in the morning, gets out at 11:30 am, and only lasts four days for a week every January for MadisonHigh School students. Sounds great, right? But there’s a catch: the week is midterm week. Gone are your dreams of sleeping in and finally achieving that fabled twelve hours of sleep during a school week. They are quickly replaced with the reality of late night and early morning cramming, and of course taking the tests.
Despite this unfortunate reality, midterms aren’t all that bad. School is greatly shortened that week – it’s basically four half-days in a row – even if time is spent studying. And even studying can be a nice break from the nonstop hours of lessons, homework, sports, and sleep that permeate many students’ daily lives. Once they’re over, the whole school breathes a collective sigh of relief, and for many, the end of midterms brings a sense of accomplishment. And despite the negative aspects of midterms, they are a part of almost every high school and are almost a ritual like a graduating rite.
Most importantly, midterms are one of the high school traditions that really do prepare students for college. Many colleges schedule midterm and final exams at the middle and end of every marking period. That’s up to eight exams! MHS’s single midterm and final schedule doesn’t seem that bad compared to what it is like in college.
Whatever anyone’s opinion on midterms is, they continue to happen year after year and are an aspect of high school that must be accepted, or if not that, at least endured.
This year, midterms are scheduled for the week of January 20th. There is no school on Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so exams actually start on Tuesday and go until Friday. The schedule is as follows:
|
Time/Date |
1/21/14 |
1/22/14 |
1/23/14 |
1/24/14 |
|
8:00am – 9:30am |
Period 1 |
Period 3 |
Period 5 |
Period 7 |
|
10:00am – 11:30am |
Period 2 |
Period 4 |
Period 6 |
Period 8 |