Midterms are given halfway through a term to assess your level of understanding in a class and frankly, they suck. But where did they come from? Why do we have them? And do we really need them?
The very idea of testing came from ancient China. About 2000 years ago, the Chinese began to implement a system where Confucian scholars could move up in their caste system by proving their knowledge on an array of topics. This allowed those not born into an elite family to move up in their socio-economic systems.
This created a new option for the Chinese people to be able to gain and showcase one’s knowledge, coupled with determination, which allowed them to improve their lives and societal standings. Sound familiar? Because this very idea gave way to new educational movements in the West.
So here we are now, almost 200 years later, and our schooling systems revolve around tests.
Quizzes, oral exams, standardized tests, online exams, midterms, finals, the list is endless. And even the style of the tests can vary, short written answers, oral, multiple choice, fill in the blank, word banks, essays. The whole thing makes your brain hurt.
Now, some form of testing is necessary to gauge an individual’s learning, what they do know and what they can improve on. But not all students learn the same way.
We have been teaching and testing the same way for hundreds of years now. And every year there are still children that fail, children that seek help but still cannot succeed in a traditional classroom setting.
So why aren’t we getting the message?
People learn in all sorts of different ways, and one style may work for one but not another.
Sitting in rows of chairs and desks with a professor dictating at the front of the room does not work for every child, yet we offer no alternatives.
We’ve all heard the phrase “I’m not a good test taker.” And while some may think this is a cop out, it holds true for many individuals who have different learning and assessment styles.
Some people may very well be able to answer whatever question about a given topic, but throw in a written exam, an exact time period to complete it, the stress and scrutiny of professors watching you, and they crack under pressure.
You can’t teach a fish to climb a tree.
Some people are more art geared, some more philosophical, some more number based.
But forcing all types of students to sit in the same room and learn the same topic that may not be their forté, how can we expect high success rates?
The state of the US Educational System is in a state of disarray.
With the implementation of Common Core, and constant stress on teachers to have their students receive high test scores or else they may lose their jobs, stress on the school districts for their students to revive high test scores to receive proper funding, the huge gap between funding of school districts in the same state, a disparity in the content being taught, ever rising price of college tuition, the same classroom model as the 19th century.
We set our students up for failure from the jump. We need to let our teachers teach, and our students learn.
Examinations are necessary in some way to ensure students are learning in one way or another. But some professors are lecture based, some discussion, some visual, some hands on. And how does one put a letter grade on someone’s psychology abilities?
We learn from the beginning to sit in our chair, take out our books, and wait for the teacher to begin to lecture about the topic.
We don’t even know what to do when a teacher begins to ask how we’re doing and how things have been going. We sit and stay quiet like we were taught, with the occasional “good” from a few students.
Students fear their teachers and think of them as these scary, stern figures only there to pound information in their heads and scold them when they slip up.
When a teacher wants to have a discussion, students get uneasy. They have thoughts of what to jot down, what will be on the exam, why aren’t we discussing instead of learning?
Do we even hear ourselves?
Professors show us an ounce of humanity and decide to cater towards us as individuals and not just students. They want to teach us in a new, productive manner and give us a platform to discuss our mindset and thoughts, and yet there’s still always at least one kid in the class that asks “Should we take notes? Will this be on the test?”
We’ve failed our students. We’ve created machines instead of philosophical, well rounded thinkers who can formulate their own thoughts and express them to others.
We’ve moved away from the scholars of the ancient world who could sit and speak on an array of topics, and they knew so very much, but didn’t have to take the SAT to prove so.
Tests cause immense stress, exhaustion and mental strain on our students. We don’t eat, we don’t sleep, we just cram information in our heads to retain for a fortyfive minute to hour and a half long exams, only to be lost within the day. We are not actually learning, we are regurgitating.
I’ve personally found that classes that are more open-ended and discussion based are most beneficial to students, and students walk away retaining more knowledge, maybe even with a new outlook on a respective topic.
But as a STEM major, these classes are few and far between. In a world where everything is becoming STEM focused, we are beginning to lose our philosophical and artistic mindsets, which would allow us to teach more openly and creatively to our students. It is a vicious cycle.
So how do we fix it? How do we fix ourselves as students, and pave way for the future youth to learn in a new, productive manner?
Well, that is up to the future teachers and professors, administrators, and policy makers.
¡Viva la revolución! Don’t lose faith just yet. Kick that midterm’s booty, and keep hustling.
And maybe one day our students will be able to enjoy learning again, and not live in fear of an upcoming assignment or exam.