<p>Been lurking at CC for a while and have learned so much.
I have a question (and will probably post this on some of the "student" forums as well, to get their input).</p>
<p>Good friend has a son at Northwestern. Last year he had a midterm on a Friday evening. Friend (and son) thought that was outrageous at the time. Now they're even more outraged that apparently this was not an anomalous event -- it's happening again. Friday night exam, three weeks from now.</p>
<p>What do you think - is it appropriate for colleges to schedule midterms on Friday nights, or is this over-the-top? Have you heard of this happening at other schools?</p>
<p>LOL, “significant plans”? Like a date or a party? I think they’ll live just fine to miss that on the given Friday night(s) with exams… which might happen how often? 8 days max in their lives?</p>
<p>D2 has a calc course that has recitation/exam period every Friday evening. Classes are small groups of 20-25 M/W/F at various times. Recitation is the whole group scheduled once a week. That time used for exam review and EXAMS. She knew when she signed up for the class. It said if you can’t come at Fri 6-7:30 don’t sign up for the class. The only other option for her schedule was a class that had a better recitation time but class time was at 8-9 am. She chose the Fri night one. </p>
<p>Her Chem class is similar, with the recitation/exam slot Monday nights 5:30-7. I guess it keeps them off the streets… And yup, things don’t get cranking anymore before 9-10 pm.</p>
<p>Back in my day, you’d take the exam during the appointed lecture time. In many schools, now the exam is given on a day other than lecture day. Friday night does seem like cruel and unusual punishment, especially since some schools start the party on Thursday night :eek: .</p>
<p>Is it an evening class throughout the term? The only problem I could see is for working students who have friday evening hours (food service, etc.). I don’t think it is outrageous and have no problem with it crimping the students social life.</p>
<p>If the students were made aware of the exam schedule at registration then nobody has room for complaint.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to Northwestern and she’s never mentioned midterms being given any time other than during class time. I wonder if this was a lab section to the midterm and they could only test one or two students at a time? I don’t think it’s a big deal but I do think it’s odd.</p>
<p>As I posted in the NU forum, there are no classes going past 5 on Fridays and in-class midterms/exams are almost never administered outside of class time, so the scenario you’re posting about is odd. Most likely, the professor granted an extension and/or it’s a take-home exam/paper, and those are granted out of courtesy. Also, as jmmom pointed out, Friday night typically doesn’t start until 10 pm anyway.</p>
<p>If I had a midweek class for which I’m supposed to take an exam, but I had a really busy week that week, I’d take the extension offer to have until Friday night. I mean, why not? You can always turn it in on time or earlier than Friday if you really just want to get it over with.</p>
<p>This was for a class that meets in the mornings. The exam last year apparently conflicted with a pretty major Greek Week event that students had to miss because of the exam, and they were pretty peeved.</p>
<p>Yeah, there are a lot of important social events that occur throughout weekday nights but they aren’t an excuse to miss an exam. No Greek Week event that’s important enough starts before 9 or 10. Occasionally, professors might make an exception for certain events (e.g. Obama’s rally in Grant Park the night he was elected) but otherwise school is priority. Generally, if there are conflicts involving a significant chunk of people, those events are pushed back.</p>
<p>Well, friend and son think that Friday night is part of the weekend, with lots of extracurricular activities going on (and son has Jewish friends, for whom Friday night is the Sabbath) and that exams could be scheduled on Mon., Tues., Wed., or Thurs., if they need to be scheduled in the evenings at all. I tend to agree with them. NU is a high-pressure school, and it seems that students <em>anywhere</em>, actually, should be done with their academic week by 5 on Friday.</p>
<p>As best I can tell, neither of my kids’ colleges holds any classes at all after about 1pm on Fridays. Final exams are a different matter, but I believe all mid-terms are held during normal class periods.</p>
<p>S (a senior) has one class on M-W and 3 on Tu-Thurs. D has classes in the mornings and afternoons on M,T,W and Th, but her last class on Friday ends at 1:15pm.</p>
<p>has anyone heard of this happening at other schools (midterms, not finals – some schools have a fairly brief finals period, so I suppose those finals could be on Friday night or Saturday)?</p>
<p>Friday night is definitely part of the weekend, but like I said “Friday night” doesn’t start until 10 pm. You’d be hard-pressed to find “Friday night” things to do before that time.</p>
<p>You can certainly get an extension for religious reasons or miss class to observe religious rituals/events.</p>