At Georgetown, the cold weather brings along with it something far more sinister: midterm season.

For some students, the requisite stress and anxiety are compounded by the sheer logistics of college test-taking. While most professors hold exams during scheduled class time, others — like those who teach accounting, physics and organic chemistry — schedule midterms outside of class, putting unsuspecting students at a great disadvantage.

The rationale behind evening tests is simple: It frees up those two to three classes that a test would consume, providing professors with more time to teach. Considering that the average twice-a-week course will only meet 28 times during the fall semester, extra time can be necessary for those classes that cover extensive amounts of material.

However, this time-saving measure  is often invalidated by professors who cancel class the day of or the day after exams. While students will celebrate this additional time to study or recover, there seems to be nothing gained from adding class time in the evening while excusing students from their normally scheduled class.

While some professors include their evening test times in their course’s scheduled meeting times during pre-registration, others do not. For those students who pack their schedule tightly with evening jobs or internships, a make-up exam usually offered in the wee hours of the morning is far from ideal.

As the next round of pre-registration approaches, professors need to inform students if their course will have evening exams by at least putting a note in their syllabuses. Midterms are stressful enough without having to worry about scheduling them into an already crammed timetable.