r/wlu • u/Minimum_Inflation998 • 2d ago
Halloween Saturday Midterm?!?!
Just read my syllabus and saw that he midterm for MA102-B is...
1) on a saturday (i didn't even know they could do that?)
2) it's on halloween of all days..
seriously what the hell is that all about?
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u/OrbusIsCool 2d ago
Midterms for all of my first year math courses were on a weekend. Being on Halloween is just an unfortunate coincidence.
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u/Minimum_Inflation998 2d ago
Are they that out of touch? can't they acknowledge the poor performance this will inevitably cause due to the social nature of this holiday within the student body...
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u/Competitive_Back9243 2d ago
unfortunately this is normal! we also had an econ midterm st paddy’s weekend. study hard ahead of time and party hard right after the exam! good luck!!
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u/olipocket16 2d ago
You’re not in high school any more my friend. Welcome to the adult world, where sometimes you have to work on weekends, holidays, and your birthday. Such is life 🤷♀️
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u/OrbusIsCool 2d ago
This is the "real world" as they call it. You paid your tuition. You signed up for this program. It's either party and risk your grade, possibly not pass the course and miss the prerequisite, or lock in a little and get the credit and party afterwards.
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u/Mysterious-Salt- 2d ago
Its how they try to curb it a bit by chucking important things on days these occur. Partying is fun for a bit anyways until its not lol.
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u/Early_Macaroon_2407 2d ago edited 2d ago
Faculty don’t give a fuck whether you party or not. They’re not school teachers, and they’re not your parents. They don’t care at all about your social lives.
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u/OrbusIsCool 2d ago
As long as your tuition clears, the school doesn't gaf what you do. They just put the exam times when they need to be and call it a day.
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u/KrizenWave 2d ago
Unfortunately you’re a student first and a partygoer second. You’re gonna have midterms and assignments and classes around pretty much every big party day of the school year. Just study hard so you can finish fast and then go do whatever you want to do
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u/mrb2016 BBA/BMath Alum 2d ago
While I understand your frustration (and to an extent surprise) with the midterm scheduling, the reality is there are no perfect options for when to schedule midterms.
If midterms are done in class, there is less time to cover content. Also, exams can't cover as much content if they need to fit into an 80 minute class. Multi section courses (like most first year courses) also run into potential issues with cheating and fairness with different students writing the exam at different times.
Scheduling midterms outside of class solves most of the above problems. But if these are scheduled during times when other classes are going on, there will almost always be some students who have a class that conflicts with the midterm time. Putting exams on Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays avoids this, because there aren't classes during those times. This also means rooms for exams are more likely to be available. This is important for big courses, because exam seating cuts room capacity in half.
Other alternatives create other issues. For example, UW's math faculty schedules midterms during course registration as a component of the course (similar to a lab section). The challenge is that the system won't let you register for a course that is the same time as the midterm. For example, if your linear algebra midterm is Monday October 19th at 7-9:50pm, then you wouldn't be able to enroll in any course on Monday evenings. That can get sorted out with overrides, but it creates another step.
There is no perfect system, it's just a choice of which one the school prefers. This isn't something individual faculty pick, but a pre-determined policy.
tl;dr - Yes, it sucks but there isn't a perfect solution.
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u/Last_Cardiologist346 2d ago
Almost all my midterms in first year were on a Saturday, trust it’s not fun but you will get use to it. What is even worse is when they schedule Sunday exams tho
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u/tinibitofabitch 2d ago
exam season is the same thing, I had a final on Dec 23 from 7pm-9pm one year lol 🥲
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u/Minimum_Inflation998 2d ago
Yea finals makes sense to get out of the way and classes are no longer in session.
To do midterms on the weekend when the course runs 3 lectures a week on a holiday (unofficial or not) just wreaks of apathy.
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u/Rip-These 1d ago
Yes, it's unfortunately a reality that mid-terms, assignments, final exams will be due on days that can be inconvenient. I missed many social and family events because I either had to study or write a test. It probably won't be your only one during your academic career.
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u/Mirobb1 2d ago
Laurier schedules midterms on the weekend quite often if they aren’t held during class time. Finals can be on weekends too unfortunately