University of Virginia Library

Simple Consideration

The days immediately following vacations
are regular class days as far as the University
calendar is concerned. There is nothing unique
about them officially except that attendance
requirements for them are more stringent than
usual in some schools to discourage students
from taking extended vacations. So there is
nothing unique officially about holding tests
or examinations on them - every professor
has a perfect right to do so if he wants to.

Our feeling, however, is that a professor
who schedules a large test immediately after a
vacation, except under the most strained
circumstances, displays a very real lack of
consideration for his students. Such a test
necessarily infringes on the students' vacation,
either by forcing them to spend some of it
studying or by forcing them to return early to
study. And if they fail to do either, the test is
likely to "infringe" on their grades.

Vacations are scheduled for the purpose of
allowing students to get away from their
endeavors, both simply to relax and, as
members of the psychology department teach
every year, to minimize or avoid blockage
which sets in during a prolonged period of
study. For both reasons they are supposed to
improve students' overall performance. Their
effect is ruined if students must spend them
doing the same thing (even if in a different
environment) they spend the rest of their time
doing. Furthermore, the break which a
vacation can afford is destroyed if students
must return and address themselves intensely
to the same subject matter they were
considering before leaving. Students naturally
return more enthusiastic if they know that
they will be studying fresh material, and that
they need not worry about old material until
the final exam.

An unusually large number of professors
seem to have scheduled tests for yesterday or
today. It may be nothing more than a
coincidence that they did; whatever the case,
we hope they will make a better effort in the
future to schedule exams before vacations, or
at least several days after them. They are
bound to get more and better return from
their students - in the forms of effort,
enthusiasm, and mere appreciation - if they
do so.