Study Week pitch stalled
“Yale, Harvard and Princeton have a study week where there is no new material or tests the week before finals,” SGA President Ryan Greene said.
SGA wrote up this resolution because it believed students had a concern with tests before final exams.
“I can’t imagine any student being against this resolution,” Greene said.
SGA passed the resolution last semester on Dec. 3. The resolution went to the Academic Policy Committee (APC) on Jan. 16 where the committee referred it back to SGA.
APC referred the resolution back to SGA not because of the content of it but because of how it was written up.
“APC was supportive of the premise of the resolution, but [APC] had problems with the writing being confusing,” Dr. Bee Crews, APC vice-chair, said. “The resolution needs more clarification. These reasons are why we sent the resolution back to SGA.”
APC’s minutes reviewed the major concerns of the resolution. The resolution had “a number of ‘whereas’ statements used to support the resolution need to be either clarified (definition of ‘small quizzes’), expanded the list of exclusions to include presentations and all discipline/school required lab/certification exams.”
Students mostly agree that tests the week before a final is a bad idea.
“Exams just stress people out,” freshman Davis Barlow said. “We have enough tests as it is.”
Some students don’t mind the resolution allowing professors to teach new material.
“This resolution gives us more time to study,” sophomore James Broom said. “I don’t mind if [professors] have to cram in the information as long as I don’t have to study for another test.”
A few students don’t have a problem with tests being on the week before final exams.
“I feel that a test before the final is an extra review,” junior Nicole Beller said.
However, most students claim that they have never had a test the week before a final exam.
“This resolution puts up guidelines for problems that aren’t necessarily there,” Crews said.
According to APC’s minutes for Jan. 16, the committee members believe students “aren’t managing their time/work load well, rather than having too many unscheduled exams right before finals.”
While a small minority, one group of students not only dealt with tests the week before a final exam, but a test on the week of final exams. Junior Caleb Roach has taken about three or four tests/quizzes the week before the final exam in his college career. Last semester for his Human Anatomy class, his teacher gave a test on the Monday of final exam week. He had to take the final exam for that class on Wednesday.
“I can’t do well on a final when I have to study for a test too,” Roach said. “SGA needs to add something [to the resolution] to not allow tests on finals week as well.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Jan 30 2009. Filed under News.
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