A Final Exam of Final Examinations

I must say that I loathe this time of the year. But as a college student, this time of time of the year means more than just cold weather and stressful holidays. When December rolls around, it means it's time for final exams.

It all goes back to freshman year of high school where I had to prepare for final exams, and here I am, a junior in college, still in the same academic cycle. But going from high-school-final-exams to college-final-exams is a big leap. It wasn't until I entered college till I had any frustration with final exams. Now, I want to give a Final Exam to final examinations.

What is it's grade based on? It's purpose. According to the ever-reliable source, Wikipedia, "The purpose of the test is to make a final review of the topics covered and assessment of each student's knowledge of the subject". Additionally, in order to get a good grade, a final exam must accurately and consistently measure the students understanding of the material.

I don’t want to spend much time thinking about final exams in high school. All I remember about exams in high school is that the teachers would spoon-feed us, arbitrary information of formulas, facts, and dates. Then, if you were good at memorizing, which I was, then you would earn good grades. That being said, I never put much effort into final exams in high school because the material they were teaching us had no substance to me. We read these great books of literature, only to study the characters, plot, and “themes”, leaving out the philosophical message that all authors try to send to their readers.So my intelligence was satisfactory enough to excel in this education system, which made me graduate in the top 10 percent of my class, graduate with a 3.9, which paved my path to Boston University. But in no way do I feel my high school education prepared me for the strenuous exams I would take in college. That being said, in high school, final exams receive an F.

But final exams are crucial to a students grade in college. >In my high school, there was a rule saying that a final exam could not make up more than 20 percent of a student’s grade. In college, professors are the ones to judge that. Final exams can affect one’s grade in a class as much as 50 percent! If a final exam can affect a students grade that much, of course campus is going to be abuzz with stressed students.From my experience, final exams are arbitrary in a college education.

I must say that college classes are a step up from high school classes. I find myself enjoying class. I love my history classes, no longer looking at dates, but at the impact the past has had on the present. I used to loathe literature, but in college, I find myself delving into books for leisure and learning, not for memorizing. If college classes have more substance to them, why is it that they rely on rudimentary, final exams. I’ve learned a lot in college, but how am I supposed to take a professor seriously when they teach me all this great knowledge an insights, but maintain that all this information can be crammed into 2 hours of an exam? If I can present a sufficient, or exceptional, amount of knowledge that they have conveyed to me in two hours, I don’t see the point of the class. If you put your previous knowledge about final exams aside, it sounds silly for someone to take a four credit hour class for 4 months, but in the end, display only a fraction of what they really learned.

Why is it crucial that I recall something that I learned in depth 4 months ago? Why must we have a comprehensive exam that covers four months of information? I’m never going to have to recall information like I do on final exams in the real world, so I don’t see the point in doing them in college. Although I’m still and undergraduate, the main critique that I hear from graduates is that they don’t feel college has properly prepared them for the real world. Also, from my knowledge, I don’t know of any job that you have to take anything remotely like a final exam.

I am in no way opposed to grades. Of course we need grades to distinguish between those who excel and those who struggle, for medical school, law school and whatnot. Taking a four credit class over the course of 4 months is a long-term learning process, yet professors can pack it into an hour. If I’m studying Hamlet at any point of the semester, and I grasp all its meaning, it’s impossible to reflect that comprehension, to the same extent, three months down the road. If a professor really wishes to assess a students understanding, he should do it immediately after learning the material, not at the end of the semester.It’s unreasonable to expect a student to display his understanding of any material, at the same level of adequacy, months after he has learned it.

>I have an even bigger problem with written final examinations. The most obvious variable here is the students writing speed. As a slow writer myself, the assessment of my knowledge is time limited, and I would appreciate it if there was another mode of writing, such as typing.If a student can type faster than he writes, wouldn’t it be ideal for a student to type the assignment?

Secondly, written exams are too subjective. Not only does the professor create the exam, but he grades it as well. It seems unfair, to have the same person who taught you, to have the same individual assess whether you learned the information properly. That is like my father teaching me to drive, but then failing me at a drivers test. I encountered the same problem in high school. You can’t expect a student to learn properly from a lousy teacher. And because the professor or teacher has authority, who is the student to question the merit of the exam. This is only a buffer for the students to attain a fair grade.<>I read the books, I go to class, and I engage in the discussions. On a daily basis, I do feel like my mind is expanding every time I finish a book. I love reading history, and learning about the past. I read history books like a kid reads fairy-tale books. I do enjoy learning, and the satisfaction I gain from having a better understanding of my world.>But then, when it comes to final exams, just because I don’t remember the name of any one character or some obscure romantic word that a lecturer mentions, the final exam reveals that I haven’t “properly” learned the test material. I know, in my mind and heart, that I have learned something from my education. This is the value, and purpose, of education. I don’t wish to learn material for the sake of earning an A. I go to school because I have a desire to nourish my mind. That is the purpose of education—the learn and to use one’s mind to its fullest potential.

This can be achieved by learning, comprehending and digesting course material.It’s more important the way you incorporate the material in your thought and mind, than learning the material to earn a grade. In my experience, final exams have failed to do that. They don’t measure how much one has benefited from knowledge, just how easily one can recall the knowledge in a situation with a million confounding variables.

So do final exams accurately measure a students comprehension of the course material.The answer is no. Only I know if I have learned or not, and final exams are not a reflection of that. I will study for final exams, and do the best that I can do, but from here on out, final exams mean nothing to me. If I have a sense of self-satisfaction with my education, I do not need to rely on a final exam to do the same assessment, which it poorly does.

Final Exams—You Fail. More importantly, students don’t need you.