Third quarter is coming to an end which means that quarter exams are drawing near.

Quarter exams are taken to test students the material they learned during that quarter. While exams in general may help bump up GPA, it is a shared fact that they are neither fun to prepare for nor fun to take.

Due to the lack of time to study for exams because of the snow days and other last minute tests and quizzes, students are jeopardizing their health by pulling all-nighters or cramming their work.

According to a study by Binghampton University’s Department of Psychology, pulling all-nighters studying for exams increased the levels of repetitive negative thinking (RNT). RNT inhibits students’ problem-solving skills and ruins their confidence to do well.

In addition, quarter exams at CHS are only 25 multiple choice questions worth four points each. There is only a small chance of error to receive an A on it and even then, it is up to the student’s final quarter grade to determine what final grade he or she got in the class. This system gives an unfair advantage to those who actually did really well in their classes to those who didn’t try as much.

For example, student A works hard and receives an A in his math class in third quarter but receives a B on the quarter exam. That B lowers his A in the quarter thus, leaving him with a B for third quarter overall. On the other hand, student B doesn’t work as hard and receives a B in his math class and another B on the quarter exam. That B on the exam doesn’t do anything to his quarter grade thus, leaving him with a B for third quarter overall.

Student A worked harder than student B but both students received the same grade for third quarter because of the unfair grading system of the quarter exams and how the scores average out quarter grades.

Because of this, exams either make or break students’ grades thus, resulting in more stress from students to do really well on them.

Also, because the quarter exam questions are multiple choice and showing work doesn’t count as part of the grade, it is impossible to earn half credit; it is either full points or getting the whole problem wrong, further ruining students’ chances to excel on these tests.

While quarter exams give unnecessary pressure and unfair advantages to students, they also are completely useless, especially when CHS has final exams as well. It is pointless to have a separate set of exams testing the same things that will be tested on a different, but much larger, set of tests when in the end, students will have to study for finals no matter what.