It's exam week, and we are seniors: we know what to expect. This is not our first rodeo; we are not green like some freshmen. However this year, we were thrown a curveball from Senior religion almost as if Sandy Koufax had hurled it. It was a 200-question exam with a chart and an in-class essay.
The hard part was not the chart or essay but the multiple guess that needed to be completed in 90 minutes. That comes in at 45 seconds a question if you do not set aside any time for the chart. 45 seconds a question is not bad on your average semester test however on an all-encompassing examination, that could be challenging. Now to be even more specific the average chart, completed well, should take approximately 15 minutes. That leaves you with 75 minutes to bubble in the little circles on the scantron. That leaves you with a blistering 37.5 seconds to read and recall the answer to each question, even more of a challenge than the aforementioned 45 seconds.
That is not to say the average senior is not up for a challenge, though, despite the mercilessly contagious “senioritis” that seems to be spreading like wildfire. Many seniors found themselves tiring around question 140 of 200 wondering if they would have the will to survive the exam. Each question became more drowsy than the last and eyelids began to squint. However, we shove the proverbial toothpick between our eyelids and press on through the jungle that is the midterm. I don’t know about you but a little “Welcome to the Jungle” just roared in my mind.
So what is the solution? Better knowledge of individual exams taken into account when scheduling the exams would help. After the religion exam, many seniors and I had to take a two-hour economics exam. Back-to-back challenging exams leaving most exhausted and in need of a break, only to follow it up the next day with another obstacle. And to top it off, the final day of exams was be spent taking an exam in a different language followed by a two-hour math exam. Exam week certainly allows for a spike in energy drink consumption.