As midterms and assignments pile up for many students, Western’s administration is looking into the implications of altering its policy on tests and examinations outside the exam period.

Under current policies, students may request alternative arrangements if they are scheduled to write more than two examinations in a 23-hour period.

CRAM CITY. Students currently three midterms within 23 hours cannot request alternative arrangements according to Western's policy.

However, this policy does not apply to midterm tests. Therefore, students with three midterms within a 23 hours may not be able to request alternate accommodations in accordance with the policy.

“There is a difference in terminology. People refer to midterms as exams but the [accurate] terminology for that is tests,” Lee Ann Wilson, team leader of examination services at Western, said.

Despite classifications, the demand of midterms is a noticeable issue, according to Dan Moulton, vice-president university affairs for the University Students’ Council,

“I think that’s obviously a concern for students, because when it comes to midterms, the workload seems to increase more and more every year,” Moulton said.

One student senator has brought the issue to the attention of John Doerksen, vice-provost academic programs and students at Western.

Ray Park, the USC undergraduate senator-at-large who contacted Doerksen, voiced his concern for student constituents.

“There is no real difference between final exams and midterm exams in my opinion,” Park said. “[In most cases], midterm exams are worth just as much as final exams.”

“During midterms, you are even more stressed because you have other work going on at the same time […] like assignments [and] extra-curricular [activities],” Jaclyn Vertes, a third-year social science student, said. “Often exams are on the exact same amount of material as midterms.”

Doerksen explained one of the challenges in changing policy is that, while the registrar’s office oversees the three in 23 hours policy for final exams, midterms are the responsibility of each faculty.

To help with midterm stress, some universities have initiated fall reading weeks; however, Western has not followed suit.

While Park believed the policy changes should be passed without much discussion, he did not feel Western’s administration will be implementing a fall reading week.

“Senate policy requires a minimum number of days for a term. And so if we were to implement a fall reading week then that would mean an earlier start to the term or a later ending,” Doerksen added.

“We are hopeful that the University will recognize that the stresses of academics are not limited to the exam period […] and that they are incredibly difficult during the midterms [as well],” Moulton added.

According to Gail Hutchinson, director of the Student Development Centre, all programs including psychological services face an increase in demand during midterms.

“Midterms have put me behind in every single class by three weeks,” Vertes added, while emphasizing the greater importance of applying the policy to midterms over final exams.

Additionally, the examination policy requires final exams to be in a consecutive order.

“I have five final exams in six days. [The academic counsellors] are not going to do anything about it,” Vertes said. “They said there are still a few hours between each exam […] Do they not want us to sleep?”

While Moulton characterized the current examination policy as fair and appropriate, he felt it still required some work.

Doerksen noted Western would be looking into the implications of applying examination policy to midterms.