Cramped and Handicapped

There are various pedagogical styles when it comes to testing. Some professors reluctantly hand out tests insisting they’re a necessary evil. Others aim to create difficult tests to differentiate between those who’ve mastered the material and those who’ve gotten the gist. And still others strive to create impossibly long exams to see how students optimize their time. However, I have never heard of a professor who insists that there is any educational value in confining test takers to small spaces that demand that they contort their bodies in seats with less legroom than economy class airplane seats and balance their tests, blue books, and calculators on attached desks smaller than standard pieces of paper.

By Ethan S.H. Fried

These are precisely the conditions most Harvard students encounter while taking exams. Perhaps the reason the College hasn’t addressed the cramped, inhospitable test-taking environment it offers its students stems in part from a disinclination to discuss testing in general—teachers begrudgingly give tests, and students begrudgingly take them. Professors often say they wish they had means other than testing to assess students’ grasp of the subject matter, as many good students are not always adept at demonstrating their understanding on written tests. At the same time, professors also complain that students are often too preoccupied with their evaluations to take the time to appreciate the material.

But it’s time to start talking. The vast majority of exams at the college are given in the Science Center, Sever, and Emerson—three buildings that have immovable chairs with little legroom and attached desks that can barely hold a single bluebook. These desks severely restrict movement within the confined, rigid space, and are predominantly designed for right-handed people, giving left-handed people an additional disadvantage.

By Ethan S.H. Fried

I acknowledge that time constraints are a legitimate means to assess whether students can think quickly and solve problems cleverly rather than rely on lengthy brute force methods. But this isn’t the case with spatial constraints. Writing on desks half the size of our exam booklets won’t distinguish the good writers from the bad ones, just as sitting in a seat in which tall people have no choice but to position themselves diagonally won’t distinguish between creative thinkers and rote learners.

Some may say it’s fair to disregard these physical discomforts, as they affect everyone equally. Some may say that students should simply learn to cope with this aspect of the test-taking experience as they would any other. But these physical discomforts disproportionally affect large students and students with attention deficit and hyperactive disorders. Someone who has bad eyesight and can’t see the clock can easily wear glasses and a wristwatch, but someone who feels uncomfortable in confined spaces can’t simply bring his own workspace to the exam room.

I propose that some class, perhaps Statistics 104, conduct an experiment to see how incommodious test taking environments affect students by randomly giving half the class an exam in a spacious environment and the other half the same exam in the standard environment. To determine whether there is a disproportionate impingement on certain populations, the experimenter should anonymously ask test takers for their height, weight, level of hyperactivity, and general level of attention, as well as other control factors such as gender, year, and concentration.

I understand Harvard may not have the resources to allow all students to take tests in reasonably sized, comfortable environments, but it is important to acknowledge the many problems of the current situation. In a school that prides itself on providing the best education and equalizing opportunity gaps whenever possible, Harvard hasn’t done a great job accommodating people with learning disabilities such as ADHD. The College should reach out to students and give them more opportunities to discuss their struggles, even if some may be reluctant to do so without prompting. Tests should measure effort, intelligence and creativity—not the ability to sit still in cramped spaces or stay organized at tiny desks.

Ethan S. H. Fried ’16, a Crimson editorial writer, is an applied mathematics concentrator in Eliot House.