Voices of Youth: Survey students to see if removal of mid-year exams reduces stress

I applaud the Government’s efforts to roll out initiatives to reduce the emphasis on academic results.

However, from a student’s perspective, I wonder if doing away with mid-year examinations brings more harm than benefits.

Mid-year exams are a valuable way for students to evaluate their understanding of the subject at the mid-point of each year. Mid-year exam grades help students to assess if they have grasped important concepts well, and whether they should seek help from their teachers.

Mid-year exams can also motivate students to start revising the topics they are weaker in earlier. Sometimes, waiting for the end-of-year exams to assess where they are at academically may be too late, especially for those who do their studying at the last minute.

The removal of mid-year exams also results in many students cramming a whole year’s worth of work into the one or two months preceding the end-of-year exams, rather than spreading out the workload across the year as they would when there are mid-year exams. That does not reduce the academic stress students experience; it only delays it. It could even exacerbate the problem.

This year, besides having other subjects to revise for, I had to study 19 chapters for my science end-of-year exam. Luckily, having revised some of these topics for my mid-year exam, I felt less intimidated by the immense amount of content.

I propose that the decision to abolish mid-year exams be re-evaluated. Perhaps the Ministry of Education could survey students from different schools to get a sense of what would truly help them deal with academic stress.

Tan E-Fei, 14

Secondary 2 student