Currently, Brown does not have a policy regulating when professors may schedule exams. Some of the largest STEM classes at Brown, such as CHEM 0350: “Organic Chemistry I,” PHYS 0030: “Basic Physics A” and MATH 0180: “Multivariable Calculus,” require students to sit for exams outside their regularly scheduled class periods. While this approach has merits, we believe that Brown should require professors to hold exams during class.
Following last week’s historic blizzard that dumped over three feet of snow on College Hill, many professors had to reschedule midterms. For those who held exams during class, rescheduling could be as simple as pushing things back one class period. However, for classes where midterms were held outside of regular hours, rescheduling involved working with the Registrar’s Office to find an available location and time. This caused delays between when students studied for exams and when they had the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge. The potential for delays is especially high this year, as space is limited due to 10 classrooms being taken offline in Barus and Holley.
To avoid academic conflicts, many of these professors choose to schedule exams late at night. However, with over 500 student organizations, 34 varsity sports teams and 37 club sports teams, many students have plans that extend into the evening. Though academics should have priority over extracurriculars and athletics, students should not have to choose between them. Unlike homework, exams cannot be done at a student’s convenience. While this might seem like a trivial concern, for students taking STEM-heavy course loads — many of which hold at least three midterms — out-of-class exams can quickly add up. When tests run late into the night, students are unable to participate fully in their college experience.
Evening exams negatively impact students’ well-being and performance. In addition to the stress of organizing one’s life around ad hoc exams, students simply do not perform as well on tests later in the day. Brown students are busy, and night exams must be taken with the fatigue of a full day of classes and extracurriculars, not to mention practices for student athletes.
The solution is clear: Proctor exams during class time. The lengths of evening exams are often longer than the class’s allotted time. Professors should instead design shorter, more intentional exams that can realistically be completed in a class period or two. Midterm exams are an opportunity to see a snapshot of a student’s progress, while the longer final exam is an opportunity to see what they retained.
This approach, of course, has challenges. In large classes with multiple sections, proctoring the same exam at different times can lead to concerns about academic integrity. This, however, could be avoided by writing different versions of exams for different class periods and giving clear guidance about what will be tested. If frequent exams make it difficult for a professor to cover all the material they would like, perhaps they can weigh homework, essays and projects more heavily or assign out-of-class video lectures.
While in-class exams may not be convenient for every course, we believe that the benefits clearly outweigh the harms and that the University should take action.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, and its views are separate from those of The Herald’s newsroom and the 136th Editorial Board, which leads the paper. A majority of the editorial page board voted in favor of this piece. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
