Every year, testing days are set out for each subject to have their tests on certain days and often these rules are broken and teachers give tests on days they are not assigned to. Following these guidelines is important to the students to have specific testing days so they can balance their schedules accordingly.
Testing days are laid out in the student handbook students receive during the first week of school. Every subject has two days of the week that they can give tests on, whether it is one of those days, two of those days or none at all, it is the teacher’s choice.
Some teachers believe that the assigned days must be altered to adjust to hiccups and conflicts within scheduling test dates. If there happens to be a school event or a snow day or some other event that conflicts with the day of the test, teachers believe it is necessary to take a test on a day that is not assigned for their subject.
Although this may make their scheduling easier, the students are the ones who have to juggle their class schedules, many of which have six other classes to worry about. In my experience, teachers have switched the day of a test because of a school event such as Thursday Night Live. As it may benefit some students, pushing it back just puts that test on the same day as the other subject test days. Altering test days is unfair to the students to have to balance studying for three subjects’ tests all in the same day when it should be spread out.
“It is not fair when we have tests on a certain day and a teacher changes their plans and makes their test on the same day as my other tests,” senior Jenny Scholz said.
Forcing teachers to follow these testing days gives the students some leisure and takes stress off their backs knowing exactly when they could have a test for a certain class and ensuring they will make time for it.
From my own experiences, I used to have a math test and a social studies test every Thursday, and I knew it was coming so I was prepared for it. But when my science teacher decided it would benefit the class to make the test for her class on a Thursday, I was put in a bad situation, forcing myself to cram the three tests in on one day. It made my days far worse than they should have been.
With the challenging schedules that some students have, balancing homework load between their typically seven-class schedule is hard enough and when teachers fail to follow the guidelines it puts the students at an even higher level of stress as it works out of their routines.
Teachers should be mandated to follow testing days to give their students a fair opportunity in all their classes and allow them to put their success in their own hands.
Nic Band
Opinion Editor
