Personally, I'm not really a fan of midterms. Not only because they all seem to occur during the same time in the semester, or because suddenly the library is packed, or because I can study for days and still walk into the exam feeling completely unprepared. While those are all valid reasons to despise midterms, they aren't mine.
Midterms have become the sole method of evaluating students' understanding in most college courses. While elementary, middle, and even high schools have begun to move away from formal midterm exams - allowing teachers to decide how they wish to evaluate students at the mid-way point - colleges still rely on them heavily. For many classes the midterm and final exams make up the entire grade for the class. No other assignments, no essays, just exams. This isn't true for smaller discussion-based classes, only for larger lecture classes. However, when your classes fall between "big" (over 100) and "small" (20 or less), the evaluations tend to lean more towards examinations, which most of my courses have done so far.
So that's the problem. What's the solution? Consider what some of my Psychology professors have adopted:
We have exams that evaluate our understanding of the material. There are three during the semester, and each covers 4 chapters of our textbook, paralleled by about 4 weeks of lectures in class. During these 4 weeks, 3 smaller assignments are administered. Each is about 1.5-2 pages in length, and tests our ability to apply the material we have been studying. The material goes beyond the classroom.
However, the system isn't quite where it should be. While these smaller assignments are extraordinarily valuable, they count for very little of our grade. In fact, all of the smaller assignments combined are worth less than a single exam. In some ways, this makes sense - on average, students spend less time working on a smaller assignment than studying for an exam. On the other hand, by valuing the exams - which only occur 3 times during the semester - over the more constant smaller assignments, universities promote cramming & other forms of last-minute studying. By increasing the value of the smaller assignments and diminishing the impact of exams on grades, students may not need to cram as much, having reviewed and applied the material prior to exam period.
That said, let's get on to the fun part of my blog: my knitting.
The scarf pictured above was my project during midterms. The yarn came from my former dance teacher, who donated much of her yarn to me before I left for my sophomore year. The entire collection is made up of wool and wool blends - this particular yarn is virgin wool. The red caught my eye as soon as I first spotted it - not too bright, but still distinctly red. I designed the diamond lace pattern on a study break, experimenting with different ways to create the corners and different sizes for the diamonds. After playing with a few different options, I settled on a pattern that was 12 stitches across and laced it on a stockinette background. I love the way that the scarf curls back when I base my pieces in stockinette. I had considered blocking the scarf, but decided that I preferred the additional warmth that comes from a scarf that curls in on itself. Overall, not including the design stages, I spent about a week on the scarf, including putting on all the finishing touches. For more information on this scarf and my other works, check out my Facebook Page
Pictured is Alesa, one of my closest friends ever since I started college. Special thanks to her for coming out on a chilly day (there was snow on the ground the night before and the night after, but it was gone when we took the pictures around midday) and to my wonderful photographer Emily.
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