Every fall, university students across the country brace themselves for the same academic storm: midterms. Libraries fill up, coffee consumption skyrockets and the collective stress on campus becomes almost tangible.
But as another testing season passes, a question lingers: are midterms helping students learn, or are they just another outdated academic tradition that does more harm than good?
In an informal poll of about 30 University of Idaho students from various majors and years, a small portion of students defended midterms, saying they help gauge what they’ve learned and where they need to improve. But the overwhelming majority voiced frustration, describing midterms as “pointless,” “stressful” and “unnecessary pressure” that often hurts more than it helps.
This mix of opinions highlights a larger truth: while midterms were designed to access understanding and encourage consistent study habits, the reality is that they often fail to achieve those goals. Instead, they’ve become a high-stakes ritual that fuels stress and burnout rather than meaningful learning.
Let’s start with the minority view, those who actually appreciate midterms. A few students admitted that, as much as they dread the exams, they see the value in them. They said that midterms give them a checkpoint in their education.
This perspective reflects the original purpose of midterms: to provide both students and professors with feedback halfway through the semester. Ideally, a midterm helps students identify their weak areas, allowing them to adjust their study habits before the end of the term. It also gives instructors insight into how well their teaching methods are working.
There’s also the argument that midterms build academic discipline. By forcing students to review material mid-semester, they can prevent last-minute cramming at the end. Some students even find that the stress, while unpleasant, motivates them to stay engaged.
However, this sentiment is far from universal. For most students, midterms feel less like a helpful progress check and more like a punishment.
Many students describe midterms as one of the most stressful parts of college life. They talked about how, with all the other projects and assignments that professors assign during midterms week, an exam on top of all of that is too much.
And that’s the heart of the issue. For all the talk about midterms fostering discipline, they often just amplify stress to unhealthy levels. A lot of stress can significantly impact mental health, leading to sleep deprivation, anxiety and even depression. When every class demands a major exam within the same week period, students are stretched thin and tend to prioritize test performance over genuine understanding.
Another common complaint is that midterms rarely reflect real learning. Memorizing formulas, flashcards or historical dates might yield a good grade, but it doesn’t guarantee long-term comprehension. A lot of students still procrastinate and wait until the last minute to study, spending all night trying to understand the material.
This cycle of cramming and forgetting isn’t real education. Instead of promoting critical thinking or mastery, midterms can turn learning into a competition of who can endure the most pressure.
The problem isn’t that exams are bad. Students should absolutely be evaluated on what they know. But the way we test that knowledge needs to change. Midterms belong to the traditional system that assumes exams are the best measure of knowledge, an idea that feels outdated in an age when education is increasingly about application, collaboration and creativity.
Many professors have already started shifting toward more meaningful forms of assessment. Some replace midterms with projects or essays that allow students to apply what they’ve learned in a deeper, more practical way. Others use low-stakes quizzes that reduce pressure while still providing feedback throughout the semester. These approaches align more closely with how real-world learning works: incremental, reflective and applied.
Midterms don’t have to disappear completely, but they do need to be changed. If they are going to continue, they should be reimagined as tools for learning rather than reasons for stress. That means designing exams that test understanding instead of memorization, spreading assignments more evenly throughout the semester and providing flexible options for students who learn differently.
Universities also need to address the culture surrounding midterms, one that glorifies all-nighters, caffeine overloads and burnout as signs of dedication. Academic rigor does not have to mean academic suffering.
AJ Pearman can be reached at [email protected].