Hi there! I’m unable to send my question through your website. I was wondering if you could tell me when midterms usually are? I’m a first year student going into the humanities department. I have to go on a trip during the first week of October and I would just like to make sure that’s not midterm period.
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hey there,
are you saying that you were unable to send an e-mail to askastudent dot innis at utoronto dot ca? because really – it’s not rocket science, folks. i try to make a point of not answering facebook messages but i’ll answer this one to hold it up as an example to everyone: please, have a heart, just e-mail us your Q’s. facebook doesn’t notify us half the time we have messages, and we look at our inbox more. help us help you.
generally speaking, it’s a super not-good idea to go on a trip in the middle of the school year. if it is unavoidable, you will be risking missing a midterm test. there is no official ‘midterm period,’ but october is around the time that midterm tests start happening.
the first week still might be a bit early for humanities students, who tend only to have one midterm per class sometime around mid- to late-october (whereas life science students typically have two, so their first midterms come a little before humanities’ students, and their second midterms a little after), so you may be okay. but you won’t know for sure until you get your syllabi in the first week.
if you’re really in a jam, make sure to communicate it with your professor/TA. it may be possible to reschedule midterms, but telling your instructor early and taking the initiative to come up with an alternate arrangement is essential if you end up having to go that route.
cheers,
aska