Teachers Need To Give More Advanced Notice For Tests

With tests being a big chunk of our grades (ranging from 35% to even 80%), testing can become stressful if students aren’t given enough time in advance to study. If some tests are worth a lot of points or more than usual, it’s especially important for students to take an adequate amount of time to make sure they can understand the concepts and do well. Many Campo students play sports and do extracurricular activities on top of their school work, which can give little time to study at the end of the day. When teachers give little to no time before a test, it puts extra stress on those students who now have to balance studying for that test on top of the activities they have that week.

It’s common for teachers to spring tests on students with little to almost no advanced notice. While we do understand that it is hard for teachers to know how the class’s schedule will go, we feel like it would be easier to give at least a week’s advanced notice to give more time for studying.

Having a full schedule outside of school can conflict with studying. For us personally, with everything we have going on outside of school, there are some nights when we get home, eat dinner, shower, and then fall asleep right away. It’s difficult to fit in other stuff besides what we know we’ll already have to do. If we have long-term projects, most of the work we do is on the weekend, and rarely gets done during the week.

Freshman Isla Fitzmaurice said, “It’s very annoying. When I’m studying for a test, I’m expecting certain things [to be on it], but when they put new things on the test that we’ve just learned, it’s a little unfair.”

New information arises during class lessons that are vital to the understanding of the lesson. However, if teachers are planning to give a test that week, then the new information should not be on the test. Personally, we like a full week to study for an upcoming test with all the information presented a week before.

AP Biology and Living Earth teacher Rene Gillibert said, “I think students should have at least a week in advance for unit tests, but not necessarily for every quiz.”

We feel like having weekends to study or work on projects is helpful. While yes, some people wouldn’t take the weekends to do something productive, there are others (like us) who would jump at that opportunity. It is so beneficial to have just 2 days when we’re not doing much. It gives us time to make flashcards or review lessons, notes, and any other material. After those weekends, it makes it a lot easier to study during the week; it seems less daunting.

Freshman Izzie Ramsay-Leavitt said, “If they tell us [that we have a test] on Monday, they’re also going to give homework due the next day, I’m focusing on that homework, I’m focusing on other tests I may have throughout the week, and it’s just a lot of work to then add to the studying of another test right away.”

With the knowledge that a test is coming a week prior, it gives students the ability to manage their time wisely, and plan their week out. When teachers assign tests the week of, studying not only interferes with what they already have planned, but adds additional unnecessary stress.

Having more time to study can also help with other classes. For example, if we have a math test on the same day an essay is due. We’ve known about both of these things for a while so we can plan ahead of time. But if we randomly find out on a Monday that we have a quiz on Friday and we’ve already had other things going on that week that we’ve planned for, it’s going to be difficult to fit more stuff into our schedule.

Ramsay-Leavitt continued, “Trying to know all the information is stressful. Trying to know all the things you’ve learned and what could be on the test.”

Teachers always say they want students to succeed in the class, but if they’re only giving them a couple days to study then they aren’t really helping them succeed. They are adding more stress to an already stressful situation. Teachers should give their students at least a week to study before the test.

Sophomore Claire Birdsey said, “I feel like it happens a lot. A lot of times teachers give you two days’ notice which isn’t really enough [time] to study especially if you have other tests too. Personally I like to plan out when I’m going to study for tests, so if I know a week in advance I can figure out what days I’m going to study. I think teachers need to give at least a week’s notice.”