As 2024 comes to a close, it is clear that it has been a historic year. Although the Olympics and the presidential election have dominated the national media, the Tampa area also received its time in the spotlight during September and October when it was hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Due to the inclement weather and the damage it caused to Berkeley’s campus, school was canceled for a total of six days.
This time away from school led to questions over how the rest of the semester would unfold. Initially, students and faculty were unsure of when lost instructional time would be made up. Many students were concerned about catching up on missed work in time to take midterm exams.
“I was kind of stressed since we were behind on the work for a lot of my AP classes. As much as we can push back our own assessments, the date for the AP exam can’t be changed,” said Alexandria Mehr ’26.
On October 22nd, 2024, a letter was sent from Upper Division Director Ryan Jordan to all Upper Division families explaining that midterm exams were canceled. Instead of an exam period during the second and third weeks of December, there would be regular school days until December 18th. There would be no cumulative assessments of any kind, and each student’s final semester grade would simply be the sum of all work completed during the semester.
This decision was met positively by students, many of whom felt that the cancellation of exams allowed the end of their semester to be a bit less stressful.
“Even though there are still plenty of tests I need to study for, I think that not having midterms definitely gave me more free time, especially over Thanksgiving break. I feel like I was able to spend more time with my family and enjoy my break instead of worrying about starting my exam preparations,” Mehr ’26 said.
The cancellation of midterms did not come without concerns. In many AP classes, the midterm exam serves as a practice run of the AP exam in May.
Upon finding out that midterms had been canceled, Upper Division Latin teacher Sarah McDaniels said she was “mostly concerned about my AP class and whether they would be prepared for the AP exam this spring without a cumulative exam this semester.”
However, Berkeley’s resilient students and faculty have worked hard to ensure that a lack of midterm exams will not impede their progress next semester and beyond. As the extension of the semester was announced, many teachers updated their assignment sheets and course schedules to guarantee that all content would be covered before winter break. In fact, many teachers have found themselves with extra time at the end of the semester that can be used either to begin to learn new material or to further review old material.
To mitigate the effects of missing midterm exams in AP classes, teachers have provided additional resources to students to further prepare them for their cumulative exams in May.
“We can still give practice tests that don’t count toward a midterm grade,” said Tim Torkilsen, who teaches AP Macroeconomics in addition to courses in the History and Religious Studies Department. Torkilsen said that each student’s performance on AP exams comes down to the amount of individual preparation they have done, rather than taking or not taking a midterm.
Some teachers are even offering optional, mock-midterms to help their students prepare for AP exams. “I’m planning to offer an optional session in January of a cumulative three-hour exam in the AP-style format,” said McDaniels.
