Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, UF made it mandatory to switch to an online format for all classes. This not only was a stressful transition for the students, but it was also stressful for the professors who had to quickly transition to an online format. For this reason, the question of what will happen about exams have only been partially answered. For those of you who have already taken an exam on Honor Lock have already experienced the mayhem and stress it is to take an online exam especially when the change came so quickly without rescheduling exams. Since the UF student population did not have a break to transition into the online format, it seems only fair for professors to make the exam optional for students who are seeker to improve their grade. Otherwise, all of this increased stress will only make student’s grades worsen rather than improve because exams are already stressful enough as they are.
Allowing S/U option for classes is not enough because those students who are pre-professional aren’t advised to switch to this option since medical schools, and others, will look down at students who selected this option for tracking classes. For this reason, I am hopeful that the UF Administration is considerate of the student’s concern for their grades due to this increased stress. UF is already rigorous enough for the classes that the students take, there is no need to add to those rigorous courses by moving exams online and having students to take these courses for a letter grade.

In addition to this stress, some people have families abroad who are in countries that are severely affected by this pandemic which makes life extra stressful for worrying when we’d be able to see our families again.