Community Reflects on Midterms

By Phin Gibbs, Lucy Jung, and Max Mantel

As snow covers the paths and temperatures drop below zero, Exonians face a too-familiar process: midterm grades.

With winter comes the dreaded cold, the introduction of the notorious H block, and midterms, which are added to Exonians’ already overflowing plate of interscholastic athletics competitions and extracurricular activities. Released by teachers in the middle of each term, midterms allow students to reflect on their performance so far.

This term, midterm grades were released on Jan. 27 and were sent to students through their advisors. However, students claim that various departments, teachers, and courses had different approaches to midterm grades.

Both faculty and students shared their opinions on the recent midterms.

“There wasn’t much pressure on it. It was good that it was delayed because it wasn’t on my mind for a while. When it eventually came out, it felt pretty natural, not too rushed,” lower Eli Pratt said.

Ava Zhao / The Exonian via Midjourney

Other students, as well as faculty, agreed with Pratt’s sentiment. “Midterm grades were very difficult to even think about given the tragedy that happened on campus, and it was just really hard to think about putting a grade on a piece of paper (or in a box on a computer screen),” said Math Department Chair Gwynneth Coogan.

Upper Beckie Gu said, “I kind of enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t made as big of a deal by many teachers and a lot of the students because there was just more focus on community.”

Lower Adam Tang said that although midterms were less stressful, academic pressure remained consistent in the following weeks. “There were definite changes, especially with the sad events that happened. It pushed a lot of tests and other events backward because of all the grief that the community went through. And honestly, even though tests were pushed back [and] we did get a lot of free time in the beginning, but everything was jammed back in together, at the end of the term and we just went back to a more harsh Exeter schedule,” Tang reflected.

Students also shared thoughts on how the winter term’s unique schedule and climate impact their livelihood, adding to midterm-related stress.

“I dislike it a lot. I understand why you need to split up the sports, but I feel like having class until 6 p.m. is really unreasonable, especially in the winter, because it’s dark, it’s cold, and everybody’s not enjoying themselves right now,” Pratt said.

Prep Sophia Marya added, “My schedule is very interesting because I do prep PE. I have a weird PE block in the morning that takes up part of C and part of D format, and it’s at different times every day. That kind of threw me off, especially at the start of the term.”

Marya continued, “I have every single academic class except for religion after lunch, and so sometimes that can be a little bit hectic.”

Teachers and students also discussed the importance of using midterms to improve class performance.

Head of the Math Department Gwynneth Coogan described this constructive approach: “They might not like their midterm grade, but with any luck, an unexpected grade will provoke an important conversation between the student and teacher. Maybe students don’t feel comfortable asking their teacher about the grade their adviser reports to them because they worry that the teacher will feel their judgment is being questioned. So I could see they might be a little uncomfortable about that, but it’s important for the teacher and student to actually be on the same page. And a midterm grade is a way to invite the conversation if it needs to happen. So I think the feedback is good even if it isn’t a perfectly accurate account of what has happened in the past five weeks,” Coogan said.

Adding on to Coogan’s description, Marya spoke on the Religion Department’s new midterm grading policy.

“The religion department had this new system where they gave everyone a B+. But my teacher gave us progress grades leading up to midterms. She told us that what we got on the small assignments added up, so that was what we got. So, although my official midterm grade [for religion] didn’t accurately represent [my performance], my teacher still found a way to, for the people who wanted them, give us a more accurate grade,” Marya said.

Despite the current atmosphere in the community, releasing midterm grades for the entire student body gave students visibility on their grades for their term.

Lower Charles Clavel said, “It’s good to be able to get an idea of where you are in the class and because I think a lot of people otherwise don’t check up, so they don’t know what their grade is until the end. It’s good to know where you are and how you need to improve.”