Our View: Professors should honor USU’s No Test Week

Every year the week before finals is designated as No Test Week. The administering of exams is forbidden in an effort to allow students ample time, energy and mental capacity to perform at their best come finals week.

And every year, a lot of professors don’t comply.

Some teachers get around the request by labeling exams as “really, really long, important quizzes.” Others don’t even attempt to mask their lack of compliance with scheduled tests appearing in their syllabi.

No Test Week was put in place for a reason.

With no “dead week” or even a day or two without scheduled classes, students are given only the weekend to review the semester in whole in preparation for finals. Studying for finals should begin long before the midnight hour, so to speak, but with new information being presented in class until the Friday before that 7:30 a.m. final on Monday, it’s no wonder No Test Week was implemented.

It is unfair to ask students to prepare for exams on a specific section or chapter in addition to learning new information and review for cumulative finals and still perform at their best. Not all professors use tests to gauge performance, and the deadlines for these final projects and papers are almost always during the week before finals. Adding “quizzes” to this schedule can make for a week of little sleep at a time when students need it most.

We ask that professors honor No Test Week and restrain themselves from scheduling quizzes, exams and other types of testing during next week.