Along with transcripts and cramped lockers, exams are something that students recognize as part of the high school experience. And yet the way public school systems operate has naturally evolved over time—traditional practices, such as midterms and finals, are being brought into question.

Candidates for the Howard County Student Member of the Board (SMOB) often reference the academic stress caused by exams in their campaigns. Current SMOB Erin Alistar was one of those candidates who utilized the midterm argument during his campaign. The 2026-2027 SMOB, Mark Li, also made the elimination of midterms and finals one of his top priorities.

In the video for the 2026 election, Alistar addressed his previous promise as he passed the torch to his potential successors.

“Last year I made a commitment to end midterms in Howard County,” Alistar said. “And today, with the board’s support, our midterm policy is finally in the process of changing.”

This statement invites a lot of excitement, but also brings up a lot of questions. What would a policy change look like? Does Alistar’s emphasis on “midterms” suggest the policy for finals will stand? How soon will a decision be made?

A Board of Education policy committee meeting on May 12 answered some of these questions. During the meeting, members and staff referenced a vote sometime in June that could potentially remove midterms.

Alistar elaborated in a comment to the Wingspan on the policy change and whether that would eliminate midterms only. “[T]here is currently no policy language change about finals in the official discussions,” Alistar reported. “Students can expect that finals will remain at their 10% weighting and each quarter will account for 22.5% of their grade.”

Currently, midterms and finals are weighted at 10% each, and quarters 20%. Until a decision is made and a more detailed outline of the new grading system is released to the public, students and teachers alike can only imagine what a single exam would look like.

And yet that does not stop Alisha Kesar, a sophomore at Centennial, from expressing her opinions on the role of assessments in education.

“I feel like midterms and finals, they cause a lot of unnecessary stress, especially because they’re only 10% of your grade,” she said.

Kesar explained that if she has a high grade for all four quarters, she does not study all too much for the final. Afterall, a student who receives an A for all quarters and the midterm could get an E on their final exam and still keep that 4.0. 

Since the removal of midterms would not impact the 10% weighting for finals, end-of-course exams would still have little impact.

Howard County is not the only school system in the process of altering its grading policy. As much as the decision being made in June seems unprecedented, Montgomery County eliminated both midterms and finals from their curriculum over 10 years ago.

In direct contrast to Howard, Montgomery County announced a slight pivot in their grading policy in 2025. According to a report from The Sentinel last year, the board planned to reinstate some form of final assessment for each semester. This change was cited as a response to a drop in attendance rates for second and fourth quarters.

However, these summative assessments—taken by Montgomery students at the end of each semester—count for 10% of the third and fourth quarters, rather than the full cumulative grade. Quarterly district assessments are taken per quarter, also accounting for 10% of the respective marking periods.

As Howard County only appears to be considering the removal of midterms and not finals, whether the new plan bears any resemblance to Montgomery’s cannot be determined. Still HCPSS may learn from its neighbor about the impacts of such a change—both good and bad.

Nancy Smith, a technology education teacher at Centennial, pointed out the key role exams play in students’ future.

“I think the advantage to [exams] is just teaching students how to prepare for an end-of-year assessment, which is a valuable skill for college and even in the industry,” Smith noted.

For those planning on attending college, they will inevitably take classes that have their grades determined by a single assessment. Trade schools also often have high-stakes certification exams.

As much as students loathe taking them, high school exams can be a good way to prepare for higher education. 

One change that Smith would appreciate is a transition to more project or reflection-based exams.

Kesar concurred, feeling that projects are a better way to assess a students’ knowledge. “You can put all your knowledge into an assignment without the stress because you know what you’re doing,” she pointed out.

Some students struggle with traditional tests, and projects allow students to apply their learning rather than simply regurgitate material.

Instead of a multiple-choice test on US History, students may conduct a research paper on a topic of their choice. Rather than a timed writing, English students may be asked to perform a scene from a play.

Certain subjects can be harder to translate into an unconventional exam, but simply reducing the number of classes that require late-night studying and early-morning nerves can make a big difference. Perhaps the solution to reducing academic anxiety has less to do with eliminating exams and more to do with rethinking them. 

However students feel on the subject, it is important that they communicate their opinions to the Board. 

“You need to show up and make your voice heard,” Alistar said during that same election video. 

With only about a month until the decision, the time for students to show up is now.