Despite Decades of Complaints, Restricted Assessment Week Is a Necessary Pain

It might be universally disliked, but this Middlesex tradition helps to develop skills needed far beyond the classrooms.

As students approach the restricted assessment week, the first thing everyone would probably do is to complain, but then move on to study for the tests. For decades, this policy of restricted assessment weeks has haunted the Middlesex campus. Initially, it was made to ensure the organization of assessments and prevent the over-piling of tests for students on one day. As the student body expanded over time, the academic departments also expanded correspondingly, and the school sought a new way to organize student assessments from different departments and teachers: the restricted assessment week. During these weeks, MX students would try their best to prepare for their tests within five days. However, as the workload increases throughout the year, many students feel more and more anxious about the assessment weeks, which often feel more like an exam week rather than a mere test or quiz week. The mounting anxiety and workload not only tortures the students, but also introduces a challenge to the system’s purpose. So, do we really need to have these mini-exam weeks?

Though the answer might not be in most students’ favor, the fact is that we do need restricted assessment weeks. The most obvious reason is exam preparation. Restricted assessment weeks are arguably just another exam week with relatively easier tests, and these test weeks are exactly what help us to get accustomed to the upcoming exam weeks in winter and spring. I can still vividly remember how I felt when I walked into the Atkins Cage for my first-ever Middlesex exam: full of stress, maybe excitement, and hopes from the prayer the night before in my room. The first-time experience of exam week is undoubtedly memorable, marked by a mix of anxiety and fear over its difficulty and scale. Without the restricted assessment weeks, a student might be completely stressed out and lost in trying to find a way to organize their preparation for the exams. So, a restricted assessment week is needed in order to better prepare students for the taxing exam sessions.

What is more important than preparing students for exam week is preparing us for life beyond Middlesex. As an elite college preparatory school, Middlesex does not merely help us attend a good college, but also prepares us for society. At Middlesex, a student cannot possibly survive without learning to schedule and prepare effectively, and this skill is exactly what one needs for the journey after Middlesex. As academics grow more demanding, it becomes even harder to find balance between sleep, studying, socializing, sports, and extracurriculars. The restricted assessment weeks not only serve to organize tests before the end of a marking period, but also train students’ ability to organize and schedule their time efficiently for the academic year and beyond. For Middlesex students, the restricted assessment weeks are probably the second major academic challenge after their demanding English classes. Indeed, it is painful, and I personally hate the need to study for the history test after just finishing a chemistry test and a math quiz, but we need to persist through these weeks in order to save ourselves from losing our minds when it comes to exam weeks and to acquire the ability to organize our lives effectively in the future.

Restricted assessment week might be irritating (and it is), but it also prepares and drives us to get used to the academic schedule here at Middlesex. In the future, one needs to learn how to organize the time spent on different matters, and it is best to start learning this skill right now.

Ethan Gu ‘28

illustration by: Olena Khiznychenko ‘27