by WRIGLEY ZBYSZEWSKI
SECTION EDITOR
If there’s one thing that every Chadwick student loves, it’s grades. Eagerly waiting for their release, peers bond with each oth-
er over their favorite subjects and assignments.
It’s a shared Chadwick experience to talk about tests, how much students loved them, and most of all, how easy they were.
But as of late, students have come to a (not so surprising) con-
sensus: their math classes are too easy.
Now, this consensus isn’t universally true. Sure, there’s an outlier here or there that doesn’t enjoy the 80-minute math tests which come around roughly once a
month.
But needless to say, kids are demanding more of a challenge. The best place to find this challenge? Transfer.
The Math Department grades students in four categories: Procedural Fluency, Conceptual Understanding, Application and Transfer.
The Transfer sections of the tests have become the popular student favorite. Before math tests, students can be heard whispering to one another, “I wonder what the Transfer is going to be! I can’t wait!” and “I couldn’t sleep last night–-I was too excited for this test!”
For those less familiar with what Transfer is, it is a section on math tests, usually two or three questions long, that asks students to solve question types they have never practiced before.
At some point in solving these challenge questions, students will have to use strategies from that unit to find the answer. These questions ultimately demand students “transfer” their previous knowledge to a new set of problems.
This section is weighted the same as the other three sections of the test, which ask questions that students have learned and studied throughout the unit. But being tested on material they’re actually supposed to know?Students have found that overrated.
Daily, students have been seen walking up to the math office and demanding that course material either become more challengingor entirely changed to a Transfer-based curriculum.
If you walk close enough to the 900s building, you can hear the faint chant, “More Transfer! More Transfer!”
The math teachers have found it difficult to deal with.
“We just want to make the kids happy,” one teacher said. “‘More
math!’ they tell us. But we can only do so much. We’ve come up with as many near-impossible Transfer problems as we can, but it’s not enough to completely change the curriculum.”
While the teachers have attempted to express this dilemma to the students, the Upper Schoolers refuse to compromise on the issue.
“I don’t see the point of math unless it’s all unfamiliar problems,” one Precalculus student explained. “I’m tired of doing problems on tests and immediately knowing how to solve them. I want to struggle. I want to be confused. I want to be graded on concepts I was never taught. Is that seriously too much to ask?”
As a way to appease many of the students’ wants, Chadwick teachers have introduced a series of “Transfer Tests.” These exams consist of only Transfer problems, and they are the same length as
previous tests.
This was one initiative that showed a positive result with the student body.
“The first time I sat down to take a Transfer Test, I was so excited I could barely breathe,” one Algebra 2 student said. “I couldn’t stop smiling the entire test. My face was so tired by the end of the class period!”
Moving forward, the Math Department is working with the administration to convert its curriculum to more Transfer-based material. While the future of these changes remains uncertain, students can only hope for the best.
They just can’t seem to get enough of Transfer.
Added an Algebra 2 student: “What makes Chadwick so special
for me is the additional challenge of Transfer that teachers add to
their tests and curriculum. There’s no better feeling than looking at a
test question and having no idea what it’s asking.”
The Mainsheet 