Testing Changes

New exam policy takes shape

Exams scores can have a significant impact on a student’s performance, so changing the exams was met with a plethora of different opinions.

A student completes a test in class, 2019. (Rossa Cole)

In previous years, students took exams two times during the year. The midterm exams took place near the end of December while the final exams were in late May. Now, there is only one exam period in late February. This change garnered both positive and negative feedback from the students

“Changing the exams was a good idea,” Xavier M. ’22 said. “Now there is less work and everything is easier to study for, so I’ll be less stressed.”

One major change that has occurred due to the date shift is the grading system. Before this exam season, the grade percentage weight of an exam was subject to the will of the teacher writing it. Now, there is a set weight for the first semester, second semester, and the exams. The first semester is worth forty percent while the second semester is worth 45 percent. The exam now has a set weight of 15 percent of the total class grade.

Previously, only the semester grades were counted and the teachers would have to include the exam grades in the semester grades. The first semester had a weight of 49 percent while the second semester had a weight of 51 percent. These weights were determined because it was believed that students would be more accustomed to their work in each class in the second semester, and therefore it should be worth more. This system allowed students to achieve a higher overall grade if they were able to raise their second-semester grade above their previous first-semester grade.

“Exams are designed to allow students to show their questions, their strengths, their reflections,” English teacher Anna LaSala-Goettler said. “They also help to provide me direction for how best to help students to improve for the rest of the term.”

Although teachers now have to create an exam with a greater amount of materials then usual, they are not worried about the new exams and still look at them as a way to improve their understanding of their students. The change in time does not affect the teachers as much as they affect the students.

Although some students relay positive feedback, others are against the change.

“Now, instead of just having to improve your second-semester grade by half a letter grade, in order for it to make a difference, I need to improve both the exams and the second semester,” Mathew C. ’22 said. “This makes the exams more stressful.”

“Research shows that more frequent, lower-stakes assessments support deeper learning and that reflecting upon test performance allows students to increase their mastery of the material,” as said in a message addressed to the Browning parents. “Therefore, starting next year, students will take a single exam during a period in February or March. This will provide more days of instruction and more opportunities for feedback on lower-stakes assessments while at the same time allowing faculty to effectively gauge students’ understanding of a significant portion of the year’s coursework in a single exam.”

The motive for changing the exams was based on research that stated having lower-stakes assignments throughout the year was better than one big test. 

In addition to the exams, since there would be no way to demonstrate a student’s knowledge afterwards, many teachers implemented capstone projects.

The same message stated, “We anticipate that in the future, boys will be able to actively display understanding through a capstone project, or other inquiry-based learning activity after the exam period.”

Adding a capstone project at the end of the year will slightly mitigate the damage if a student did not do well on the exam. This will also allow students to demonstrate their knowledge at the end of the year. Furthermore, some teachers are collaborating to assign projects that span over two subjects.

Despite these benefits, these changes may take some getting used to. Only time will tell how effective the new exam schedule will be for both students and teachers.