Although we all strive to do well on our midterms this should not occur at the expense of our physical and mental well-being
With exam season fast approaching, many students are slowly starting to forget about their own well-being. All-nighters, avoiding breaks and skipping meals will be the daily norm as libraries are filled to the brim with students focused on achieving one goal - getting a good grade.
Under the pressure of succeeding in rigorous university classes, students are forced to prioritize their GPAs above everything – but at what cost?
Under no circumstances is it okay to place your academics above your mental well-being, especially during high-stress periods like exam season. In fact, during times like these, it’s important to prioritize yourself to avoid psychological distress.
Under no circumstances is it okay to place your academics above your mental well-being, especially during high-stress periods like exam season. In fact, during times like these, it’s important to prioritize yourself to avoid psychological distress.
You should not be pushing through deteriorating mental health for the sake of an exam. By doing so, students are making themselves susceptible to psychological distress, academic burnout, and isolation from the damaged relationships. Indulging in these typical exam activities infrequently may be okay for the time being. However, when consistently making these activities common practice many long-term adverse health implications accompany that.
For example, you may have skipped lunch today because you have an exam at 4 p.m. You may think that using this extra time to study might help you do better on your exam than if you were to grab lunch.
In the short term, you are now starving during your exam which may distract you and make it difficult to concentrate on the exam. However, if you continue to skip meals you are putting yourself at risk for health issues such as mood swings and brain fog. Over time, more concerning consequences can arise too, like fainting and muscle loss, contributing to more illnesses that can cause you a trip to the emergency room.
Experiencing these extreme health implications will only worsen over time if students continue to study all night and isolate themselves from friends and family.
Even though exam season is riddled with anxiety and stress, it is important to understand that the habits we develop during these academically critical periods will have long-term negative impacts on our health. When our health is impacted, our performance on exams is also negatively impacted.
So, what really are the benefits of neglecting our wellbeing?
Although skipping study breaks may help you perform well on your first exam, it’s very likely that continuing these habits will prevent you from performing well on future exams. Additionally, you may begin to experience insomnia, psychological distress, and increased stress levels. Overall, these short-term practices not only have negative health implications in the long term, but they also impact your performance on exams as December progresses.
As hard as it may be, students should not sacrifice their well-being temporarily for exams as the consequences follow us well after. We must recognize that regardless of the intentions for indulging in these practices, there are very minimal benefits to experience during exam season.
We must recognize that regardless of the intentions for indulging in these practices, there are very minimal benefits to experience during exam season.
In fact, prioritizing our well-being can demonstrate academic benefits that will allow us to excel during exams. For example, eating nourishing meals throughout this stressful period can increase mental alertness and stabilize your energy levels allowing you to perform better on exams.
With exams quickly approaching, it's important to remember that sacrificing your well-being to upkeep an ideal GPA can lead to unhealthy habits appearing in the long-term concerns. Taking care of your health, such as eating well and taking breaks.
Following a CHEM 1AA3 midterm, students have expressed privacy and security-related concerns use of Respondus Lockdown Browser
C/O Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
Due to restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have had to adapt to online learning for the 2020-2021 school year. As a result, professors have faced unique challenges with respect to teaching and assessing students virtually.
One such challenge is ensuring academic integrity, which can be difficult in an online context because professors cannot monitor the test-taking process as easily. In response to this difficulty, many universities have relied on proctoring software to prevent cheating. At McMaster University, the most commonly used proctoring software is Respondus Lockdown Browser.
Though potentially valuable from an academic integrity standpoint, many people have raised privacy and security-related concerns about requiring students to download proctoring software. McMaster students appear to share these concerns, as many have voiced them on Reddit over the past few months.
Concerns about proctoring software have recently received a lot of attention from students, following the CHEM 1AA3 midterm on Feb. 6, 2021. The Silhouette discussed the CHEM 1AA3 midterm and the potential problems surrounding proctoring software with a student, who has been granted anonymity to ensure that they do not receive academic backlash for coming forward.
Concerns about proctoring software have recently received a lot of attention from students, following the CHEM 1AA3 midterm on Feb. 6, 2021.
This student reported that their laptop shut down directly after the CHEM 1AA3 midterm. They also said that they have been in contact with numerous other students who faced technical difficulties during and following the midterm, including computer lags, computer shutdowns, emails about compromised passwords and multiple contact attempts from unknown numbers.
The student added that, of the students who experienced technical difficulties of some kind, 16 have reached out to the chemistry department.
The student said that as the chemistry department was unable to solve the problem at all, their only response was telling students to report it to Avenue Support or to the Respondus company.
“It should have been [the chemistry department] taking responsibility,” the student added.
“It should have been [the chemistry department] taking responsibility,” the student added.
Jay Robb, manager of communications for the faculty of science, stated that the chemistry department took student concerns seriously.
“[The chemistry department] encouraged the students to reach out on technical issues and get answers around that,” Robb said.
According to Robb, the chemistry department plans to continue using Respondus Lockdown Browser and to give students an additional 30 minutes on exams, to account for any technical difficulties that might arise. Robb explained the chemistry department’s reasons for using proctoring software.
“We need to maintain the academic integrity and protect the value of every student’s credit,” Robb said.
CHEM 1AA3 students are not the only ones to have raised concerns about McMaster’s use of proctoring software over the past month. On Feb. 22, 2021, the Student Representative Assembly put out a statement in support of students’ concerns about McMaster’s use of Respondus Lockdown Browser.
In their statement, the Student Representative Assembly called on McMaster to respond to student concerns about privacy and security and to provide all students with alternative methods of assessment if they do not consent to the use of Respondus Lockdown Browser.
Christy Au-Yeung, a co-leader of the SRA’s science caucus, explained that it was a challenge to find information regarding the protection of student privacy on Respondus.
“The onus is on the university to do a better job of informing students [about Respondus] and giving them the option to protect their privacy,” said Simranjeet Singh, co-leader of the SRA’s science caucus.
According to Au-Yeung, the experiences that students had with the CHEM 1AA3 midterm were an integral factor in the SRA’s decision to release a statement.
“There were issues in that test, some caused by Respondus and some not, which caused the unfortunate scenario and motivated us to act,” Singh said.
“There were issues in that test, some caused by Respondus and some not, which caused the unfortunate scenario and motivated us to act.”
Simranjeet Singh
Singh noted that some unrelated technological issues faced by individual students may have been grouped together with concerns more directly related to Respondus.
However, he added, the additional pressure of Respondus on students’ internet may have been a factor, even for students who experienced difficulties unrelated to Respondus.
Au-Yeung and Singh both emphasized that the SRA wants student perspectives to be heard.
“Obviously [McMaster] can’t change what’s in the past, but moving forward [we hope that] students continue to be consulted,” Au-Yeung said.
Many of us don’t need to be reminded that there’s only a few days left before exam season starts, but we might need a reminder to make time for a nice home cooked meal. It’s easy to turn to buying lunch or dinner when you’re tight on time during these next few weeks, but there are ways to make cooking an enjoyable experience while relieving some stress too.
The Sil staff have compiled their favourite recipes that are easy to make, especially when you’re short on time. We encourage you to try them out, change up the ingredients and most importantly, take the time to take care of yourself this season.
Shared by Sasha Dhesi (Managing Editor)
Pasta is a staple batch recipe since it’s fairly easy, delicious and lasts the whole work week. While most people don’t have time to make homemade pasta, students don’t have to rely on jarred sauces and compromise their time.
Making a sauce at home can seem challenging, but simple recipes like this one are great for students low on time and on a budget.
I adapted this recipe from Bon Appetit’s Bucatini with Butter-Roasted Tomato Sauce. I replaced a few of the more expensive ingredients with more accessible, easier kept items that make more sense for students to keep around in the house. The recipe should make about four servings and take about 40 minutes, but only 20 of those minutes are active! This is a great recipe to make while studying at home — just pop the sauce into the oven and you’ll have a great sauce in no time!
Shared by Hannah Walters-Vida (Features Reporter)
In an effort to describe how good this soup is, the most a room full of Sil writers could come up with is “warm, warm soup, it hugs you from the inside”. Pretty much everyone in the office will agree that this is a great recipe for soup. I typically double the recipe and freeze the soup in mason jars for when I need a quick, filling meal.
This recipe is originally by Jennifer Segal and I made a few modifications to make it vegan friendly. This recipe yields 8 servings and takes about 45 minutes to make, but most of the time is spent letting the soup simmer. This soup can stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months, so it’s worth the investment in time. Just make sure to pop it into the fridge the day before wanting to reheat it!
Shared by Razan Samara (Arts & Culture Editor)
This is my go-to recipe for dinner with friends and potlucks. It also makes for a perfect side dish alongside lunch or dinner, I personally think it pairs really well with chicken tawook tacos and panko-breaded fish. This recipe yields about 3-4 servings and was inspired by Cookie and Kate.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve found myself become quite reliant on this recipe. It requires minimal effort, which means I can throw a whole batch together pretty quickly the night before my early morning commutes. This recipe has filling ingredients, can easily travel and can be modified to meet your taste preferences. I encourage you to keep things new and interesting with every rendition of the dish!
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By: Mitali Chaudhary
Sometimes you just know a bad midterm mark is coming when you’re in the exam room, mind blank, slowly getting that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as you listen to everyone else’s pencils scribbling furiously. Even worse is when you’re blindsided and left stunned at the hands of a subject you studied your heart out for. Either way, getting a bad mark on a midterm is a painful experience that not everyone can simply brush off.
In time, however, it’s entirely possible to bounce back. The best way to start this process is by determining exactly how you prepared for the test and what actions you can take in the future to fill the gaps in your knowledge or steps you can take to ready yourself better for future experiences. If this is done realistically, the reason behind your shortcoming can be picked out and smoothed over, which leads to greater chances of success in the course. Maybe your social hours or casual Internet usage need to be limited or maybe you’re lacking in the organizational department. Whatever the problem may be, once it’s identified, it’s much easier to seek help and set goals to correct it. Fortunately, McMaster University offers everything from counselling to extra help for virtually every course, as well as soft skill workshops for free that can provide support.
It’s also helpful to stay positive and to put the mark into perspective. Although it seems like a big deal at the moment, half a semester still remains and the finals are the real deciding factor of the course grade. It’s therefore much more productive to focus your energy on using the experience as an accurate depiction of what you still need to learn or work on, instead of wallowing over it for a month. Make sure you look at the class average too, it may be that you got a 65 percent and are disappointed by it, but if the class average was a fifty, then I’d say that’s a pretty good mark.
Essentially, to properly bounce back from a botched midterm, a lot of introspection is required, followed by some goal-setting and smart action. This lets the unpleasant event turn into a smudge in your distant memory instead of becoming a large mental stain that constantly intrudes on other thoughts.
