Exeter Community Reflects on Midterms

By EILENA DING, MAGGIE KOTKOWSKI, JAYDEN OH, and MELIA THIBAULT

Last week marked the halfway point of the Academy’s 2025 winter trimester. Students were notified about their midterm grades by their advisors, and most classes held Midterm Effort To Improve Classes (METIC) sessions, where students discussed their opinions on improving classes. 

Students across campus have varied views of midterm grades. Prep Amira Trapasso said, “They’re helpful because they can help you see how you’re doing over the course of the term.” 

Another anonymous prep, however, argued that it would be more beneficial if students always had access to their grades. They said, “I think you should be able to see your grades 100 percent of the time.” 

Some teachers shared that they take rounding measures when assigning midterm grades. “I think in general I round the midterms down,” Instructor in Math Tim Whittemore explained. “If you’re doing well and you get a good grade, there’s a tendency to coast. On the other hand, if you get a midterm grade that’s not as good as you think it is, you get the spark to work a little harder.” 

Students are also unsure about how they feel about getting their grades through their advisors. When asked his opinion, prep Leo Kim answered, “It will be much better if we can just check it on Canvas or the Exeter website.” Another prep agreed, “I think you should just be able to get them emailed to you directly.” 

Whittemore pointed out, however, that “the advisor is included in the dissemination of the information as a way to make sure that advisors actually, you know, talk to their advisees about them.”

Along with varied views of midterm grades, students also hold conflicting opinions on the METIC system. Some believe that they are helpful for improving their classes. Trapasso expressed, “I think sometimes they can be helpful to help us reflect on what we’re doing well with and what we need to work on.” Trapasso continued, “I think some classes have METICs that go better than others, it just depends on the class.” 

Prep Dhruv Bhaghayath has a similar view: “I think that in general, it was helpful for my classes.” Concerning the effectiveness of his METICs, he explained that although his classmates expressed many areas for improvement during the discussion, they have not followed through with their goals. “People said a lot of things to each other, but I don’t think things really changed after METIC,” Bhaghayath stated.  

Another anonymous prep stated, “I think sometimes they can be helpful, but most of the time, it doesn’t do anything. Especially if the teacher doesn’t leave the room.” They explained that when teachers don’t leave the room, students aren’t able to give honest feedback and truthfully reflect on how the class is doing. They also expressed that their classes usually give feedback during METIC discussions but don’t end up implementing their goals for improvement, adding, “I believe my classes usually do not take the feedback into consideration,”

Senior Chinasa Nwankwo holds a similar opinion: “I think they’re more effective when the teacher isn’t there because that allows the students to actually consider what their areas of improvement are without worrying if it will affect their Harkness grade later on.” 

Nwankwo continued, stating her opinion on how to improve the METIC system.“There should be a more consistent method throughout different classes because right now every teacher has their own method, which is inconsistent and gets annoying.”

Teachers also grade the midterms differently. In terms of grades, Whittemore claimed that he “rounded the midterms down.” However, El Kaplan, an instructor in the computer science department, said, “We have set weights for quizzes and projects, so midterm grades are fairly accurate.” 

For METIC sessions, Kaplan added, “I think students don’t get much chance to talk about improving their class in general. This also allows me to know what students have in their minds.” 

METICs and midterm grades are a big part of Exeter and are extremely important for the way that classes run. They not only provide a check-in for the students, the class as a whole, and the teachers, but they also represent room for improvement and hope going into the second half of the term. 

Every term, before and after midterms students and teachers alike are given the motivation to focus on their studies. While students and teachers express various opinions regarding the way the systems work, voicing their concerns and hopes for improvement, there is consensus that midterms are an important, potentially stressful, and informative time for the entire Academy community.