Weighing Midterms at LHS

I recently transferred to Leonia High School from a public high school in Jersey City, and my first week of school was midterms week. While this isn’t the ideal way to get introduced to a new school, it did give me a chance to notice a bunch of differences between the way midterm exams work here vs. there.

Midterms week at my old school was incredibly chaotic. The reason for this isn’t the exams in themselves, but rather the schedule.  There, you would have one daily schedule of periods 1-5 or 1-8 and you’d have the same order every single day during a normal week. This schedule is followed everyday except for midterm and finals week and therefore a new schedule can be difficult for students to follow. The test taking order for midterms week are periods 1 and 4 on Monday, periods 2 and 5 on Tuesday, periods 3 and 6 on Wednesday, periods 7 and 8 on Thursday, and Friday and Monday are for make-up days. The change in schedule can be confusing for students. The midterms themselves were also a lot longer than they are in Leonia.

Midterms at Leonia High school seem more organized than my old school because of how the A, B, C, and D days work (a rotating block schedule). It’s completely different scheduling-wise and it makes you dread certain days but enjoy others, especially when taking midterms. You have 2 hours to take each test and you do them between Tuesday and Friday as Monday students had off of school. You would  have an opportunity to take makeup tests during your free periods. After you take your midterms you’re allowed to leave the school if you don’t have any others that day. Buses left the school at 12:25.

The differences in midterms week between both of these schools is very prevalent. I would prefer the Leonia High school system because it’s just easier to adjust to than Dickinson’s.