By Jessica Miller
Teachers think that finals are an essential way to assess how much a student has learned, although finals can be discouraging and an unnecessary cause of stress for students.
Finals can be aggravating because students have to study for 5 to 7 final exams and it is exhausting taking two hour-long tests every day for a week. A logical purpose for giving a final is to force students to go back over the material they have learned for an overall better understanding of the subject, but when finals are worth so much of the final grade they become stressful and nerve-racking.
Finals are worth up to 25% of your grade, and if a student is having a bad day there is nothing they can do to fix their grade in the class after the final. There should be a reasonable amount of points in the class before the final in order to balance the percentage of the final exam with the previous tests.
The Spanish department requires a final each semester worth 25% of each student’s grade. Spanish Teacher Nancy Geczi thinks finals are a great indicator to see how much a student really knows and how much they have retained throughout the semester. English teacher Shannon Vaughan does not give cumulative finals, but advises students to not procrastinate and start reviewing in advance for their finals.
Senior Sam Resin thinks finals are a good way to assess students and that final exams give students one last shot to raise their grades. However, she says that more teachers should make the final optional because if a student already has an A in the class, they have proven themselves worthy of an A and shouldn’t have to stress about something they already worked so hard for.
Although finals have benefits such as forcing students to review the material, written exams are difficult for students who have trouble memorizing tons of information. A solution would be for students to be able to display how much they’ve learned in a project, poster, or drawing rather than a written test. According to Junior Roman Burtozzi, final exams are based solely on a student’s ability to memorize simple facts that are often irrelevant to everyday life.
Finals are organized well with a three day weekend following one review day, and 3 half days. This gives students time to start studying without having to start weeks in advance. Resin says that if a student cannot memorize loads of information, they should take it upon themselves to prepare earlier than the week before so they have more time to review the material.
Overall, finals are not a fair way to assess students when they are worth over 10% of the final grade because they often devalue a student’s previous test scores in the class, cause stress, and are extremely difficult for students who have trouble memorizing information. The school schedule gives students an acceptable amount of time to study, however, students would benefit if more teachers made finals optional for students who already have a decent grade in the class.
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