Try to remember back to this past December. After returning to the University from Thanksgiving break you had one week of classes. Then, after only two study days, you launched into what was likely a brutal final exam schedule, consisting of seven days of exams, without respite until winter break.
We on Student Council believe that this schedule is unnecessarily onerous, and we believe that it is flawed for several reasons. To begin with, because many professors assign papers and exams for the final week of class, these two days provide an insufficient rest and re-focusing period before final exams. Secondly, two days of studying before exams allows for inadequate preparation for what is likely five exams, papers, or projects. This insufficient preparation leads to poor performance on final exams, and also to unnecessarily high levels of stress. This stress carries health risks, and leads to further poor performance on exams. Likewise, this schedule rewards not those students who have kept pace with course material, but rather those with a skill for cramming.
For these reasons, we believe the University should provide students with additional study days during both the fall and spring exam periods. Nearly all of our peer institutions support us in this belief.Every school in the Ivy League, as well as William and Mary, UC-Berkeley, and the University of North Carolina, have at least three study days during final exams. Indeed, you may be intrigued to learn that Harvard provides its students with eleven study days before exams, and Yale provides seven.
Furthermore, as opposed to further front-loading these study days, we believe that additional study days should be interspersed throughout the exam schedule. This schedule will allow students needed rest time in the middle of exams. Similarly, it will decrease the likelihood that students will be overloaded with multiple exams during a two- or three-day period. Likewise, it will allow students to devote free study days to those exams that come late in the week, as opposed to cramming for all exams during the first two study days.
This is the schedule that Council recommends. However we will not push for this proposal until we are certain that students agree with it. In order to gauge student opinion on this issue, we have placed two questions on the university-wide ballot. When voting next week for your favorite candidates for student office, you will also have the opportunity to answer these questions.
The first question asks: Would you like more study days interspersed throughout the fall and spring final exam periods? If the majority of students answer yes to this question, then we will move forward with our proposal. The second question asks: In order to gain two more study days in the fall exam period, would you support extending the final exam period to as late as December 22 in certain years? This question will allow us to gauge the intensity with which students support this proposal. If the majority of students answer yes, than we will advocate for two additional study days in the fall, which in certain years may extend finals until December 22. If the majority of students answer no, than we will advocate for only one additional study day, which would never require an extension of finals until December 22.
The voting booths will open next Tuesday at 8:00 am, and will remain open until Thursday at 8:00 pm. We hope that you will take this opportunity to voice your opinion on this issue, and empower us to advocate on your behalf. If you would like further clarification on this matter, or would like for me to answer any further questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
(Micah Schwartz is Student Council president.He can be reached at schwartz@virginia.edu)
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