Over my four years here at HMHS, time and time again I’ve heard peers, friends, and even myself complain about having several tests in one day. Mackenzie McMillan, a junior, told me, “Last year, I had a test for every block period so the entire day was taking tests. So I didn’t have enough time to study to my fullest ability for all of them and by the third one I gave up.” But how is something like this allowed? 

According to the Student Handbook, “Students are not required to take more than three major assessments in one school day. If more than three are scheduled, students may request to take a scheduled exam on the following school day. The student is responsible for reporting this situation to the teacher and making arrangements to reschedule the test. Teachers are encouraged to consider students’ workload when scheduling major assessments, especially during the last two weeks of a marking period.”

But this evokes several new questions. First, does this extend to quizzes or are they not considered ‘major assessments’? One student said “I’ve taken four tests in one day…they weren’t all tests but some were writing [assessments].” Would this be sufficient to make them exempt?

Next, why is it on the students to report to teachers about rescheduling the test? Oftentimes a lot of students won’t feel comfortable going to teachers about something like that, especially underclassmen who may feel less comfortable with confrontation. Asking something like requesting to change the date of a test may feel daunting or even disrespectful. Students may also not want to bring up the date of a test because they expect that their peers already have and they don’t want to bother the teacher about it. Either way, should it be the responsibility of students to confront teachers about having several tests in one day? 

I suggest that teachers should have a group calendar where they post the days their tests occur. They can plan so only two or three tests maximum can be taken in one day. Alternatively, students could report to their guidance counselor the number of tests they’ll have in a day and the guidance counselor can reach out to those teachers and find a way to make it more fair. It shouldn’t be the responsibility of students to manage the teachers’ schedules, they should only have to worry about studying. 

As senior Reese Titton told me, “After taking more than three tests in a day you start to feel so drained and at that point it inhibits your further performance in other things later in the day.”