The first quarter of the year is done, and it feels like any other random Friday off. While the end of the quarter usually isn’t anything to write home about, and the end of the semester is when the heat is cranked up, the end of the quarter is especially bland this year.
Some of this year’s new policies are: late work is docked 10% each day it’s late, 50% grade floor, 20% of the grade are formative points, 80% are summative points and two retakes per class each semester. With these new rules, the incentive to complete outstanding work dwindles. Because of this, the previously stressful deadline of late work due at the end of the quarter isn’t as dreadful this year.
Most work that students receive late is formative. With the low incentive to complete small assignments because of their weight in the grade book, the stresses of the end of the quarter are sparse. However, most students, including myself, are stressed going into the next quarter. With summative assignments worth 80% of the student’s grade, the retake policy makes summatives more stressful than they have been in previous years.
Some classes might work well with the two retakes per semester policy, but to make all classes follow this wouldn’t be taking into consideration the multitude of classes offered. A class’s pace, difficulty, students’ understanding of the unit, testing anxiety, etc. affect the number of retakes taken. Throughout the almost two-month-long quarter, there is a plethora of tests in each class, some more and less than others. Classes are all different — there are so many different factors that go into tests and how successful they end up. It’s not fair to put a limit on retakes.
Previous quarters have been more stressful because the old policies were less strict. Having late work that could still be weighted 100% in the grade book increased the rush at the end of the quarter. This also allowed students to not turn assignments in on time and still end up with an almost perfect grade, most of the time. The quarter end was a huge deadline, and you could bring up your grade very quickly with a few assignments. This year, without the stress and the immediate satisfaction, the end of the quarter wasn’t there.
The countless Fridays off in Oct. and Nov. also affect the excitement of the quarter’s end. It almost feels like we get almost every other Friday off for various reasons. It felt as if the end of the quarter was another random Friday off. Of course, having a Friday off is great but it was a shock to realize the end of the quarter was the reason.
The end of the quarter overall has been pretty nonchalant, but the looming retake policy makes it hard to look forward to the end of the approaching semester.
