Most BYU students race home from school on Friday afternoon, ready for sporting events, blind dates and in the case of this past weekend, General Conference. For many test-taking students, however, the weekend started a little later on Friday.
Hot sun and last-minute studying agitated students as they waited in unusually long lines outside the BYU Testing Center. The line, caused by midterms and students wanting to finish their tests before General Conference and Friday’s BYU-Utah State football game, wrapped past the McKay Building at one point during the afternoon.
[/media-credit]- The line to the Testing Center snaked out the door and past the Brimhall Building on Friday afternoon.
Lindsay Valdez, 18, a sophomore from San Diego, studying public health, waited toward the back of the line to take her health promotions test on Friday afternoon. Her first test of the semester, Valdez had already been waiting for 20 minutes without being close to reaching the Testing Center door.
“When I first got here, I almost made the decision to turn around,” Valdez said. “But I figured I should just get the test done while it was fresh in my mind and be done for the weekend. But it hasn’t been too bad. I’ve actually made a couple of friends.”
Valdez, wanting to get her test out of the way before General Conference and Monday’s “late day” fee, felt as though her test was worth the wait.
“I could still take the test next week, but then it would be the late day and I’d rather not have to pay,” Valdez said.
Michal Savage, 19, a sophomore from American Fork studying pre-communications, was feeling confident and ready to take her family finance test, and was disappointed to have to wait in the snaking line.
“I was kind of sad, because I was so ready to go take the test and then the line was so long, and now I have to wait,” Savage said.
This wasn’t the first time Savage had waited in a long Testing Center line, and she said she was worried about an even longer wait this time around.
“I’ve been in the Testing Center before where the line is long inside, and it’s taken an hour,” Savage said. “Now the line’s out the door, so it could be a while.”
While Valdez and Savage accepted the long lines and seemed cheerful despite the unusual delay, other students were less optimistic. Alex Mansfield, 22, a junior studying chemical engineering from American Fork, was frustrated, and wondered why teachers would collectively schedule their midterms on this particular weekend.
“I haven’t ever had lines like this in the Testing Center, not even during finals week,” Mansfield said. “I thought they weren’t supposed to have too many tests scheduled at one time, and distribute them evenly.”
Wait time significantly decreased Saturday, and the Testing Center extended tests that were to end on Friday until Saturday afternoon to accommodate the large crowds on Friday.
