William Zou: Midterm dates should be posted before enrollment begins

They say that fortune favors the prepared – yet, UCLA students frequently face sudden academic issues beyond their control that can easily derail their meticulously plotted-out course plans.

Much of the blame lies in enrollment difficulties, and one of the most dire dilemmas that Bruins face during enrollment is the fact that while the school does a good job informing students about final examination dates during enrollment, it does not place the same level of importance on giving students their midterm examination dates early on.

While small-scale conflicts where only a few students are involved may be unavoidable, larger-scale clashes in which over ten students are forced to contend with this issue indicate a broken system of organization between courses. Professors should post midterm schedules alongside those of their finals during enrollment, and academic departments need to create more pre-emptive procedures for handling midterm conflicts, especially for midterms held outside of class time.

UCLA’s Midterm Examination Policies dictate that “notice of midterm examination dates and times must be published in the Schedule of Classes and on MyUCLA before enrollment begins.” Unfortunately, this policy, which is advertised on the web, seems to be weakly enforced. Sometimes, midterm dates are only listed a week or even days prior to the start of the next quarter. This means that many students are not informed of their midterm examination dates until far too late, which in turn means that they are vulnerable to midterm conflicts between their chosen courses.

For example, this winter, many freshmen in the College of Letters and Science are facing a midterm conflict between Chemistry 14A: “Atomic and Molecular Structure, Equilibria, Acids and Bases” and Life Science 30A: “Mathematics for Life Scientists.” The number of students who faced this problem pushed the professor teaching Chemistry 14A to begrudgingly allow students to take the midterm at a later time, specifically from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. – right after the Life Science 30A midterm. This conflict not only places an unnecessary level of stress on freshmen – of all students – but is simply unfair to the students who pulled the short straw and wound up with an unavoidable midterm conflict that might end up affecting their grades.

[Related: The Quad: Meditation for midterms]

This problem does not solely lie within South Campus. Kevin Tran, a third-year business economics student, has friends who have faced this issue before.

“I think it is problematic … if you have midterms on top of your regular classes, because usually you’re supposed to take midterms during class time, but if not then it is an issue … however, professors can usually work around it.”

While professors can choose to work around conflicts, these clashes should not occur in the first place. Conflicts are troublesome for professors too, giving them an incentive to take steps to avoid such issues. When planning out curriculums, professors should collaborate with one another by comparing their future syllabi before the quarter begins to ensure there is no overlap between midterms and to provide important dates and deadlines as soon as possible so that students understand what they are getting into.

To make enrollment a simpler, more clear-cut process, faculty should follow UCLA policy and provide midterm examination dates during enrollment. This would give Bruins the full ability to prepare themselves for future courses by handing them all the information they need to make an informed academic decision.

To further reduce midterm conflicts, the registrar and academic departments need to add several features to MyUCLA. The website currently informs students of class schedule conflicts and final examination conflicts during the enrollment period. This feature should also include any possible midterm conflicts. Professors should also plan ahead and pinpoint their midterm examination dates during enrollment.

Conversely, it is nearly impossible to avoid all possible midterm conflicts. After all, UCLA students take a diverse variety of courses, each with their own schedules. Professors should also be given as much time as possible to plan out a full syllabus for their next quarter, as it is difficult to plan out midterm dates entire months ahead of time.

And while students need to exercise personal responsibility, it is impractical to ask them to plan ahead when they only realize a week before classes start that they need to resolve midterm conflicts. If not enough students have the same conflict, it’s difficult for professors to accommodate the few who do.

It makes no sense that final examination dates are given out so that students can avoid final conflicts while midterms are not given that same consideration. As such, it is completely unreasonable for the university to expect students to make administrative decisions and take charge when they aren’t given sufficient information.

Enrollment is already difficult enough, and many students have to rely on luck in order to get the classes they want or need. Enrollment should be a clear-cut process that allows students to fully determine their respective futures instead of allowing a roll of the dice to choose whether they face midterm conflicts or not.