The week of January 21st through the 24th of 2025, Suffield High School will be going into Midterm mode. This means that students will have two, 2 hour and 5 minute exam periods with a 25 minute break in between each exam block, with the exception of Friday, January 24th where there is only one exam block. At the end of days students have two options: they can go home or there is time after school for them to finish previous exams if they didn’t do so already.
First, I asked several teachers across Suffield High School what specifically they do to help their students prepare for midterms. Mrs. Goodwin, a highly respected math teacher, said that “I hand out a study guide that we go over in class and each day do several problems.” As a student of hers, I’ve found this extremely helpful, especially in a hard math class. Mrs. Goodwin also assigned deadlines for when certain sections are due for a grade, to make sure each and every one of her students are staying on track with their guide.
On the other hand, Mr. Beigel, an outgoing and wise science teacher, said something similar: “I post a review guide, everything is on Google classroom so it has all the dates. Depending on the class, like anatomy,” (which is the class I take with Mr. Beigel), “I’ll post the tests and quizzes that they took over the semester so they can look back and redo them.” Mrs. Goodwin does almost the same thing. She hands back test and quiz folders so students can study from them and learn from their mistakes.
Another similarity between Mrs Goodwin and Mr. Beigel is that they both believe in not waiting until the last minute to do your studying. They both advise students to make time for themselves to be able to study little by little each day. Depending on your preference of studying whether that is a group, in your room, or a quiet space they ask for students to not procrastinate. Exams are very difficult in high school and there’s a lot of them crunched all into one week, so don’t leave your studying until the night before the exam.
Katelyn Allard, a fellow senior student athlete backs this, in our interview she mentioned,“make sure to study because these tests are very hard and start studying as soon as possible.” She also mentioned that she always makes sure to start studying after winter break so she has time to make her own study guides and learn all the concepts. In another interview with Devon Root-Blanchfield, a Junior student athlete, she said that, “when the teacher allows us to have a note card it really helps students, especially for me in math because it’s not my strong suit.” Which I can completely agree with, when teachers allow students to have cheat-sheets it relieves a lot of stress so you’re able to put things on it that you might not know off the top of your head. Usually you’ll see these “cheat sheets” in science and math classes, sometimes history and most likely not in English classes.
Now, you might feel like you don’t have time to study or you’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of stuff you have to keep in mind. Whatever the reason might be, the most important thing to keep in mind in the weeks leading up to midterms is time management. “Studying one thing at a time, take it section by section and focus.” Devon continues, “It’s important to keep in mind your schedule and which classes you have the most difficulty in.” What she means by this is if your math midterm is your first exam of the week and it’s the class you have the most difficulty on, start there. Even the night before the first exam day, don’t study your 6th period exam that night, review your 1st and 2nd so you’re ready for the next morning. Mr. Beigel highlighted this strongly in our interview, “List out each day of what you have to do, even write it down into a schedule, and make time for studying.” Time management is critical in exam preparation, remember that.
Now freshmen, it’s your first year taking exams, which can be stressful. I asked my interviewees what their advice is for you specifically. Katelyn, Mr. Beigel and Mrs. Goodwin all mentioned to study and to take them seriously. These test grades are going to be actively posted on your Powerschool the second your teacher grades them. On the other side of things, Devon advises that, “the week before midterms is worse than actual midterms because teachers try to shove everything last minute, and you’ll most likely have a bunch of tests and projects due.” This is also very true, teachers tend to attempt to finish everything up just before the end of the semester.
With that being said now you have everything you need to know about midterms, some tips, guides and skills. Now get to studying- this is the part where you get your cup of coffee and get to note-taking.
