<p>Are there midterms at Bama, like one has in high school?</p>
<p>Also, do kids have to vacate dorms during breaks?</p>
<p>The dorms were open during the Fall Break this past October. Because it was just a four-day weekend, many students who live a great distance from UA chose not to fly home. That number included my son. The dorms were also open during Thanksgiving break, but the campus was very quiet. Dining halls were closed, too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. With so many students from all over coming to Bama, hard to believe they would close the dorms, but many schools do. Figured dining would be closed. What about the library, rec center, other facilities? Would be a great time to get some working out done without the crowds.</p>
<p>Bumping up the question about midterms, too. If there are midterms, is it like high school, where you take one or two scheduled tests, and then the rest of the day is free, or how does that work? I probably should put this on a separate thread, but if anyone wants to answer, please feel free.</p>
<p>Some/many profs schedule a test (they may not call it a “mid-term”) shortly before the last day to withdraw with a W (sometime in October). That usually isn’t the first test of the semester, and the test doesn’t necessarily cover all that’s been taught up to that point. Colleges have largely moved away from the idea that a student’s grade is based on two tests - a mid-term and final.</p>
<p>Midterms in high school are different. They’re usually held at the end of the first semester. </p>
<p>In college, tests during the semester just happen during classtime. During finals week, the exams are spread out throughout the week using an exam schedule where tests can be at various times during the day (not only mornings like high school). My sister is shocked to learn that my nephew (at Vandy) has an exam on Friday night.</p>
<p>Freshman and sophomores are required to be issued midterm grades in all their classes.</p>
<p>The library is open most days out of the year, even when the rest of campus is closed, other things are not. As others have said, we don’t have defined midterms. I thought I read that it was all 100 and 200-level classes that had to post midterm grades, but 3 of mine didn’t. The times for finals usually have some resemblance to the actual class time, but not always. I scheduled this semester so I could leave for home on Thursday morning versus on Saturday.</p>
<p>It’s true that midterm **grades ** are required for frosh and sophs, but that doesn’t mean that there has to be an official “mid-term exam.” It just means that in October, a mid-term grade (for all work done up to that point) must be posted in frosh/soph classes on MyBama. That way, there are no complete surprises in December.</p>
<p>Oh, I like that. Kind of like a progress report. Glad the library is open at breaks, as some kids opt to stay on campus to catch up on classwork, especially big projects like papers, rather than spending two days out of their four days off as travel days.</p>