Midterm exam season has arrived, and whether writing essays, studying for an exam or starting projects, students are rehashing the age-old balance between working, sleeping and touching grass. But once again, OHS has student’s backs by hosting the Spring Midterms and Mayhem review session, the third of the four yearly schoolwide exam preps. Despite being titled “Midterms and Mayhem”, the event, held 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PST on Friday, February 27th, was clearly structured and a general success.
Organized by the Writing and Tutoring Center (WTC), the Board of Student Academic Support and Services (SASS), the Board of Club Relations and the Board of Events, the event was hosted on Adobe Connect and included around 23 volunteer peer tutors and TAs leading 15 course review sessions! Attendance was high, with around 20 students per hour, divided among breakout rooms provided for each course review session.
“Overall, the event was a success!” Theresa Nakagome said. “All of the participating groups–both within the Midterms & Mayhem leadership teams and our student presenters–worked very hard to bring our OHS community together for this event. For this Midterms & Mayhem event, more review sessions were hosted than our last Finals Frenzy, which goes to show the willingness of OHSers to support one another in our studies.”
“As a review session host myself, I found that I had good attendance for this event,” Nakagome said. “I think this is in part because of the distribution of review sessions that we settled on. One of our goals for improvement from Finals Frenzy was to ensure we did not have too much overlap with review sessions in order to address attendees’ and review session hosts’ concerns about having to choose to attend one session over another.”
“These practices are something that I would like to continue with Finals Frenzy to make sure that the event is accessible and accommodates as many students as possible,” Nakagome said.
For Marianne Tzeng (‘29), who attended the Object Oriented Programming and Design (OCS20) course review, reality pleasantly surpassed her expectations. “I only joined because I was curious,” Tzeng said. “I was mainly looking to get practice, which I expected to be dull, but it turned out to be a lot more than that. The OCS20 review session was led by Alexa Pacholyk (‘26). “[Alexa] explained every problem really well!” Tzeng said. “On top of that, she was really supportive and encouraging.”
Adriana Feng (‘28) attended the Midterms and Mayhem event for two hours, in two different roles. Reflecting on her experience, Feng said, “I thought it was really helpful. I was there as a peer tutor supporting students in Latin, and as a student myself seeking help with writing. Having that dual experience made the event even more meaningful.” After attending the Modes of Writing and Argumentation (MWA) course review session, Feng said, “I received direct feedback on my writing that was helpful […] I was hoping for timed-writing guidance, and I got exactly that.”
At 4:00 p.m., the review sessions ended as the event transitioned to a Kahoot game and raffle! The Kahoot covered OHS trivia about the school, classes, history and more, and the winner received a Pixel Plushie. Subjects ranged “from wave-particle duality to Descartes to Shakespeare,” Justin Guoji, the Board Chair of the Board of Events and game host, said. “A lot of the questions were throwbacks to 005 series courses (OP005, OC005, OE005, etc.), so it was nice to jog the memory after being deep in midterm mode. Moreover, I think it also speaks to the breadth of OHS students and what we get the privilege to learn and discuss at such an early start.”
Francesca Davies (‘29) won the Kahoot, but in a lovely moment, gave her place and plushie prize to Teresa He. The same form of classmate camaraderie occurred during the raffle. The raffle was attendance-based, and all those who attended a review session and the BOE event at the end had a shot at winning an OHS T-shirt. The three winners were Laura Evans (‘30), Teresa He (‘28) and Daphne Foroughi (‘28). Foroughi gave her T-shirt prize away to Tzeng.
Reflecting on the effect the Midterms & Mayhem event had on her studies, Tzeng said, “[a]ttending the sessions helped me review and practice concepts that otherwise had become a little rusty. It was also really fun, and the prizes did help motivate me to study!”
“I think that the event went great!” the Board Chair of Club Relations, Leonid Vishnevskiy (‘26) said. “Attendance was good, and there were many review sessions hosted, as well as a fun event by the Adolescent Wellness Society to help students de-stress.”
“However, there is always room for improvement!” Nakagome said. At the conclusion of the Midterms and Mayhem event, the Board of SASS sent out a feedback form to the students. For Nakagome, even though attendance was high, she would still like to see increased attendance
Feng has a suggestion for this. “Perhaps a Bring Your Own Food and Favorite Beverage policy (BYOFFB)” could work, she said. “Students could showcase their snacks and study at the same time. Food brings people together.”
By increasing fun or relaxing activities during the event, like the Adolescent Wellness Society’s exercises or Feng’s suggestion, students may be more willing to attend. Vishnevskiy reflected on this further and said that “[o]n our side with clubs and societies, there weren’t too many [sessions], so I’m hopeful that for next time, we’ll be able to get more of them to host […] fun events.”
“We are always open to feedback and improvement,” Nakagome said, “[i]f you have any suggestions or thoughts you would like to share.” For any students who are willing to complete the feedback survey, it can be found here.
“Before we know it, we are beginning the process again to plan for Finals Frenzy!” Nakagome said. “I hope that these events help students both academically and by fostering a sense of community during these busy seasons!”