University of Virginia Library

Reading Days

The College Faculty is one group on the
Grounds that has instituted more progressive
changes, changes of true substance, in the past
two years, than almost any other organization
at the University. The capstone of their
achievements was the sweeping curriculum
reforms that went into effect this year for all
College students. One reform that was long
overdue was the extension of the reading
period prior to final semester examinations
from two to five days. This reform is
threatened.

The former two-day period, which usually
consisted of a Saturday and Sunday before
the beginning of exams, was not a realistic
amount of time for a student to even start to
review his course materials. The faculty wisely
acted to extend the period to five days and, in
effect, give students a week's chance to
frantically try to recall the names of amino
acids, the dates of every artistic masterpiece,
or the thrusts and contradictions of all the
social and political movements in modern
Europe. The period still seems rather brief as
the examination period looms forebodingly
on the horizon. Contrary to some rumors,
those few students who whisk away their
academic worries during this period by
travelling to the tropical climes do not fare
well when the grades are finally released.
Almost everyone spends this time studying, or
at least staring at the books.

The reading period is threatened by those
faculty members who continue to hold classes
covering new material during the week,
schedule the last quizzes in the period, force
students to take make-ups or move up the
final examinations (a practice that is expressly
forbidden by faculty rules), and require
written material such as papers or lab reports
during a period that is supposedly set aside
for review. If faculty members continue this
practice, they will destroy all of the benefits
for learning that result from it. The student
will be forced to resort to more cramming
than learning in order to receive a satisfactory
grade. We thought that the College faculty
had been attempting to take the emphasis
away from grades and to stress learning and
that the extension of the reading period was
one way to accomplish this.

If the reading period continues to be
polluted with more quizzes and new material,
it will surely discriminate in favor of some
students at the expense of others. There needs
to be a uniform policy - a reading period that
allows all College students to have time for
adequate review on an equal basis.