Midterms have arrived at Bel Air High School which leads to two standard questions from every student; what will be on the test and how much will it be worth? The answer to the second question is one eighteenth of the final grade. The midterm and the final combined are worth one ninth. If the idea of high school is to prepare students for college, than this system needs to be corrected sooner rather than later.

The idea of making midterms and finals worth more is an unpopular idea amongst students. But in college, cumulative exams are worth a substantial amount of a student’s grade. Assessing a student’s mastery of the curriculum is the most important part of learning; it proves that they have actually learned. This is not to say that tests are the only important part of school; but the idea of taking intermittent tests throughout the year is not only to assess a student’s mastery of that specific area, but also to teach them what parts of the curriculum they have not yet mastered. This all culminates in a final exam; one that should be worth more than one fourth of a quarter, or eleven school days.

The way student’s success is measured in this day and age is by their performance on tests. So the system used to grade our midterms makes almost no sense. Why would the cumulative tests taken by Bel Air students not have more weight in deciding their final grade? The final and the midterm should be worth at least as much as each individual quarter, as they are the true assessment of a student’s understanding of the subject matter.