No Paper, No Impact

You walk down the halls and spot a student lugging their broken backpack and their broken dreams by the strap while steadily humming old hymns of better, happier times. You approach them to see if they’re alright. The poor student simply looks up with bloodshot eyes, grabs you by the collar, pulls you closer and whispers, “Midterms come out today.”

Though this image may seem dramatic, it was a real thing back in the earlier 2000’s. Students would crack pencils, break backs, and cry over their midterm grades if they didn’t match their expectations. You may be asking, “What’s the big deal? I barely even notice my midterm grades.” Well friend, things weren’t always that simple.

It used to be that you would only see your grades twice a year. Those times would be for midterms and of course, at the end of the trimester, but now that we have the power to check our grades at virtually anytime, the question is are midterms still that big of a deal now that they’re online?

“I don’t think online midterms have as big as an impact as the hard copy ones did,” said senior Emma Malwitz. We all remember handing our midterms over to our parents with young, trembling hands as we watch them look it over to see if we had made them proud. What about now? Our parents receive weekly updates on our progress in our classes, so it really takes away the element of surprise.  Paper midterms seemed to motivate us to better in our classes and not wait until the very last minute to slack off. The drive we feel from online midterms is little to none. True, student’s should be motivated no matter what they receive, but an extra push never hurt anyone. In order to keep up the drive for success, paper midterms should make a comeback for those who need that extra push.