Midterm season is quickly approaching and there are many new changes unfamiliar to Staples students. The most significant one, perhaps, is the lack of a make-up day built into the midterm schedule. Instead, there are review days––four periods spanning two hours each before exams––but no day to take a midterm if a conflict arises and you can’t take the test during the designated period.

This removal of the make up day is bad for so many reasons. First and foremost, there is no day off after a long and grueling midterm process for students who are already finished with exams. Perhaps the administration doesn’t understand how much studying goes into each midterm, but it is incredibly time-consuming. A day off provides a welcome break between the first and second semesters.

Secondly, January is smack dab in the middle of flu season. Flu season affects a lot of the Staples population; spending upwards of six hours in an enclosed environment with the same people makes it so. As such, it’s entirely possible to fall ill on a testing day. The make-up day was put in place so if you missed a day, you had the ability to make it up.  But now this will no longer be an option. 

Lastly, there is now no other time to make up a midterm. The administration must understand that things happen and people miss midterms for reasons out of their control.These tests take upwards of two hours and aren’t the easiest to schedule. Since there are no make-up days, teachers and students alike are forced to stay two hours after school to finish the test. Two free hours are hard to come by for both students and teachers given their full calendars.

The administration does not have bad intentions. In the past, they have added more time between tests, started testing later in the day and created activities between tests to promote wellness. These additions are minimal and have no negative effects on students, whereas the removal of a make-up day has lasting ramifications that hurt students. If the administration is as interested in aiding students through the midterm process as they have been in the past, they should reinstate the make-up day.

The administration has changed the midterm schedule in hopes of improving efficiency for student and teachers, but in fact, it has done the opposite. Students are forced to make-up a midterm during and after school. They no longer get a break between semesters and after days of intensive and exhausting studying sessions. Sometimes too much change does more harm than good. The administration must put the make-up day back into the schedule to help accommodate their students instead of inadvertently impeding them.