Midterms and Midyear Rededication

This is the Senior year of my high school life. I’ve been through 11.5 years of public schooling. I have taken numerous standardized tests (living in Massachusetts), as well as tests that are “so important”. But what always confuses me, is the importance of midterms and finals. They are heavily emphasized in high school as something to commit heavily to. Without a doubt, this should be done, but with a closer look at the transformation of my grades depending on how well I did on midterms was perturbing.
Midterms/Finals are worth 20% of the semester grade, and each quarter is worth 40% of the grade. But when one considers how a grade is made up, if you have three big tests a quarter, those tests are worth 13.33% of the semester grade. When one compares how much this is worth in time spent to the midterm studying compared to test studying, they are disparate.
But since I did not do amazing first semester, I hope to do better this semester. But at the same time, I want to relax and enjoy the last semester of high school. Since I got into college, I’ve been relatively relaxed but still committed.
What midterms are best for is a small break. Its a rededication in the middle of the year. A chance to revise what has been happening so far, and fix things that may have gone wrong to this point.

Keep it up, you’re almost there seniors!