<p>This might be a silly question, and it also might very well be more of a generic college question than a Yale-specific question. Regardless, here goes:</p>
<p>Are tests at Yale timed? I'm not talking about staying there all night quintuple-checking work, but are time constraints a factor that people typically need to keep in mind when taking assessments? A lot of my high school curriculum is based upon timed assessments, largely due to the presence of AP classes as well as the emphasis on standardized tests in general. I often find the biggest stress on tests to be not actually putting my best ability into the material but rather finishing on time (I'm looking at you, AP Calc). What is the attitude toward this type of thing at Yale/college in general? I understand there is still MCAT, GRE, etc., but nonetheless I would assume most classes themselves are geared to the actual understanding of content as opposed to efficient test-taking like in high school. And yes, I get that efficient test-taking is important, and yes, this isn't a big deal or anything, but if anyone has any insights on the matter please quench my curiosity! Thanks!</p>
<p>P.S. I'm primarily asking about the atmosphere in STEM classes</p>
<p>During the semester, tests occur during regularly scheduled class time, so if your class is an hour, then your test can be up to an hour. Likewise, if your class is 90 minutes, the test cannot exceed 90 minutes, as anything longer would encroach on the time period of your other classes.</p>
<p>Professors also sometimes hold evening midterms if they want to give a longer test. For example, my physics and math midterms (two tests each) were scheduled for 7pm and 8pm and lasted 2 and 1.75 hours, respectively. But yes, they are fairly strictly timed. My math prof stated on multiple occasions that he tries to write his tests such that he could scribble down all the solutions, showing everything necessary for full credit, in one third the allotted time.</p>
<p>Also, even exams that are given during the class period do not necessarily fit within the time that the class normally occurs. For example, my freshman chemistry class had three hour long, aptly named “Hour Exams,” even though the lecture was only 50 minutes long.</p>
<p>TL;DR, to my knowledge, every test at Yale is timed.</p>
<p>Interesting. Thanks for the responses! Are professors ever lenient with giving extra time? And would you say that time constraints are a big concern that people typically need to keep in mind at all times during assessments (similar to the AP style curriculum of high school)?</p>
<p>Jazzed: Do you have a documented learning disability? If so, a professor MUST give you extra time.</p>
<p>If you’re just slooooooooowwwww, then professors ordinarily do not give students extra time for tests. (They may sometimes give a student a 24hr to 48hr hour extension for a paper due to extenuating circumstances.)</p>
<p>FWIW: My son is a junior at Yale and he’s never had an issue with completing a test in time.</p>
<p>I imagine this varies a lot from department to department. My experience has been that time is rarely an issue on tests in the humanities, but it’s often a significant issue in STEM classes. I guess I’ve never had a test that I couldn’t have finished in time if I had been fully prepared, but I’ve definitely had tests where I ran out of time because it took a while to figure out how to approach the problem.</p>
<p>One thing worth keeping in mind is that most tests in STEM fields are heavily curved, so if time is an issue for you it likely is for other people as well. In most physics classes, 80% is an A, 70% is a B+, etc (and some curves are even much more forgiving). I imagine similar curves exist in other STEM departments.</p>
<p>@Gibby: I do not have a learning disability. I just spend a lot of time on tests and enjoy checking my work. I generally finish and it’s not a big deal or anything–I’m more just curious as to the general test-taking atmosphere I will be exposed to in the coming years.</p>
<p>^^ Then you should be okay. As I’ve said to my daughter, who is senior at another college, “Why are you killing yourself? It’s okay if you don’t make an ‘A’ in every class. This isn’t high school; you’ve already got the brass ring!”</p>
<p>Some professors will not accept your paper if you do not put your pen down as soon as they say to do so. I wouldn’t say that professors are lenient with time - they try to write them so that students can finish if they absolutely know the material, but the biggest challenge is actually being able to do some of the questions well enough in the first place.</p>
<p>I agree that professors are generally not super lenient on time for exams, although my math professor this semester did give us an extra 15 or 20 minutes on each of our midterms because he has a tendency to be super long winded and wanted to make sure we had a fair amount of time. Leniency really just depends on the professor.</p>
<p>Professors give hard tests and you could spend the rest of your life checking and rechecking your work and boxing all your answers and making it look pretty etc. What I learned in a semester at Yale is that the exams really just test your ability to determine “good enough” and move on. YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO GET ALL THE ANSWERS RIGHT, even if you spend several hours checking and rechecking. Pick up points where you can do so most easily, and let the others go.</p>
<p>The atmosphere during exams is much more relaxed than AP exams (i.e. people getting up in the middle of the test to go to the bathroom, cellphones buzzing in backpacks, etc. These things are generally frowned upon, but the professors allow it).</p>