What is the “Reserve Format” at Exeter?
By ADRIAN CHAN, CIARA O’NEILL, ADELLE PITTS, and KEVIN THANT
Every Exonian has experienced laying their head into their pillow, dreading the 7 a.m. wake up ahead after a long night of studying. They’re not sure that their body has the energy to get through another five classes the next day, and just need a break. Then, their eyes fly open. They grab their phone, and turn off the alarm. They don’t have a reserve format tomorrow — their history class isn’t meeting.
The reserve format blesses Exonians across campus with sleep-ins, extra study time before tests, extended lunches, and much more, depending on the time of their free block. However, not every class excuses the reserve format, with many STEM-oriented classes requiring students to meet during the reserve. This week, The Exonian examined how different departments have set policies on the use of the reserve, and how students are affected by those decisions.
The reserve format provides greater flexibility for courses that have varying goals for their in-class and out-of-class time.
Director of Studies and Instructor in Chemistry Jeanette Lovett explained, “For example, my Chem 500 class is about eight hours per week, but in chemistry, I want more of that to be class time because of the lab component, and less of it necessarily needs to be out-of-class work. So that’s why all of the science courses use the reserve because that tends to be the case that we all want a little more in-person time.”
This also explains why humanities classes, namely English and history, rarely use the reserve format. Lovette further described, “Whereas in a history or English class, although they are still discussion-based in the classroom, they want more time for students to do their reading and writing outside of class. So they use a little less class time, and they have a little more homework time, but it still adds up to about the same total.” In fact, a higher-level history class, such as the 500 level, meets less frequently to give students more time to analyze complex material.
Chair of the English Department Barbara Desmond said, “For many years, the current system has served us well, as the reading and writing students do for English classes requires a fair amount of homework time, and using the reserve would throw off the ratio of homework to class time. Since teachers are assigning more and more writing in class these days, there may be interest in shifting the class-to-homework ratio in the future.”
While the reserve format is always used for science classes and never for humanities classes, the same cannot be said for math and languages. In math and language classes, a general phenomenon is that the higher the level, the less common the reserve format becomes. Unless it is an accelerated course, higher-level math rarely uses the reserve format. The same can be said for languages, where the reserve format is generally not used past the 300 level.
Lovett attributes this to wanting to foster independent learning. “The lower level courses tend to use the reserve and have smaller homework assignments, and in the upper-level courses, you’re sort of building this scaffolding towards more independent learning.” Independent learning seems to demand more out-of-class time, especially for the higher levels. Lovett continued, “As you get older, and you’ll see when you go to college, you have even less class time and more out-of-class expectations in terms of the workload.”
In terms of what decides whether or not a class needs a reserve format, Lovett highlighted, “It’s really the department’s prerogative to propose courses that use the reserve or not.” That prerogative doesn’t entail a priority of one class over the other. Lovett further restated that the main goal of the reserve is to get a grasp of “what balance of in-class time versus out-of-class work is appropriate.”
Instructor in Spanish and Head of Modern Languages Department Fermin Perez-Andreu agreed. “For lower levels when they are beginning with a language, it’s very important to have contact with the teacher and contact with the other students more times a week. So we think that it’s important to use the reserve format because that means more class time in the week,” he said.
However, for classes that do not use the reserve format, Perez feels as though there is a disadvantage. He elaborated, “For example, I have a class that I met with on Monday, and I couldn’t see them until Thursday. I was joking about how I didn’t remember I had this class anymore.” There is almost a lost sense of rhythm after such a long break in the middle of the week. “It feels like you have to make an effort to regain the rhythm in a sense.” Perez added, “It’s good to have a flow, and with languages if you don’t have that, I personally feel that I have to work a little bit harder on regaining that flow.”
Students generally view the reserve format as beneficial, especially in the case of English and History classes, where teachers generally give a lot of reading each night. Lower Maya Hinrichson explained, “I’m able to spend more time on readings, especially long 30-40 page readings. I’m able to really analyze and dive into them instead of having to rush through, which I would if I had class one day after another. The reserve format is a helpful way to balance out the schedule.”
Lower Hanna Wei agreed. “The extra time really helps to actually understand the reading in between classes. But because English and history classes don’t use the reserve, some teachers tend to leave more readings each night.”
Science classes always use the reserve format, meeting four to five times each week. Consequently, this results in more homework per week compared to humanities courses. “I think that the homework is a little bit different for humanities versus science classes,” Hinrichson said. “When you do history and English, you have to do a lot of analytical thinking, which takes more time and more attention to detail. And for lower-level physics and math classes, the homework is generally six to nine problems a night. You can usually get those done quickly, since it’s usually more problem solving than it is analytical thinking.”
Hinrichson also pointed out that STEM classes require more in-class time for labs, quizzes, and tests. “Those are the classes that you need longer periods to do more hands-on learning and engaging work, so it makes sense that they meet more frequently.” That is in addition to field trips taken by the Science department such as the pond field trip taken by Instructor of Science Dr. Summer Morrill’s BIO210 class during their reserve blocks to observe the local ecosystem and develop experimental skills. For instance, higher biology electives can use reserve for a longer field trip to the beach for marine biology.
In the case of the language department, where upper-level classes do not use the reserve format, senior Lucy Jung described the reserve format as helpful for building the foundation of a language. “Especially when you’re trying to learn a new language, it’s important to repeat things often. I think that’s when the reserve format can be really useful. But when you’re going toward upper-level classes, they’re not as necessary anymore. By then, most people will have a solid basis for what they’re learning, so the frequency of classes can be toned down a little bit.”
On the other hand, an anonymous upper celebrated the freedom he obtained by not having reserves for most of his classes, saying, “I often have days where, by not having reserves, I could have as little as two classes.”
In the end, the efficacy of the reserve block comes down to how Exonians themselves use the time. People could claim inequity of class time, but it truly is the case that better classes and Harkness discussions can come from more extensive preparation beforehand. The time spent individually reflecting and generating unique, creative ideas can lead students to a conclusion that they might not come to if they met 6 blocks a week. At best, the reserve is used to prepare for class time, and at worst it’s used to catch up on sleep — either way seeming to be time well spent.