Throughout January, Schreiber students can usually be found preparing for the midterm exams that take place at the end of the month.  However, for the last two years, Schreiber’s traditional midterm week has not taken place due to the pandemic.  As a result, many teachers have chosen not to assign any cumulative assessments in the last two years at the end of the semester.  While this is a relief for many students in the moment, will it do more harm than good in the long run?

Cumulative testing is both effective and necessary at the high school level.  When students take a unit exam, they typically do not retain the material for very long afterwards.  Most students tend to learn the material for the test, but do not work to fully comprehend it unless it is a subject in which they are very interested.  Cumulative assessments force students to achieve long-term understanding of the material they learn in class.

In the 2020-2021 school year, very few teachers assigned cumulative assessments in lieu of a midterm, and many did not assign a final exam at the end of the school year.  As a result, students were less prepared in classes in which knowledge of last year’s material is necessary, such as math, science, and foreign language.  It may have been nice to be free of the burden of these tests at the time, but part of preparing for cumulative exams is to ensure that students are ready for the subsequent level of each subject in the following year.

Mid-year cumulative tests are the most beneficial to students in AP classes, who have to take an AP Exam in May.  A cumulative test in an AP subject helps students learn what the real exam may be like, and allows them to get used to sitting for a long test.  The 2021 AP exams were the first time many students had sat for a long exam in almost two years.  When previous units were not tested past the unit exam last year, studying for AP exams became much more difficult.  Students were forced to relearn material that was never tested throughout the school year.

Additionally, AP exams exempt students from intro level courses at many schools.  However, if they plan to succeed in the next level class, it is important that the material they learn over the course of a year in high school is tested at the end of the year.  This way, they will be prepared to take the higher level class in college.

Although canceling midterms seems like a healthy decision for students at the moment, teachers and administrators should re-examine the long term impact of this choice.