There is a lot of variation in the description of what a final actually is. For some, it’s a cumulative examination that demonstrates a student’s complete understanding of a class’s subject matter. For others, it’s a project like any other that happens to be the last of the semester. There is an abstract concept of a final as a source of stress for students, but no two people are going to have the same experience. This raises a significant question: if finals look different for every student, do they all serve the same purpose, and do they succeed overall to justify each different type existing?
Most finals fall into three categories: projects, tests and essays. All of them require varying amounts of time and commitment.
Projects have a preparation stage and presenting stage, but the beauty is that a lot of presentations are done in class, leaving students in the clear when it comes to the exam period.
On the other hand, tests require studying, and each student can choose how long they study for. Preparation can take as little or as much time as you want it to, but typically, more studying leads to better grades. Tests are also at a set time during finals week, which does provide increased time to prepare, but also requires students to stay on campus longer.
Thirdly, essays are done outside of class, and there is a set beginning and ending to when one has to work on them. They have the largest amount of mandatory out of class work, and the amount of time given to complete one impacts the results. If someone has a few days to work on a paper, their grade could go down due to not having enough time; on the other hand, if someone has too much time, they could overthink and make unnecessary edits that bring down the essay’s quality.
Of course, you also need to write, which is a skill that can be hard to master. There is no perfect option for a final, with all of them having definite pros and cons.
Finals look different for the various majors, minors and disciplines. STEM majors tend to have hours-long final exams that focus on rote memorization. Studying for these types of finals requires hours of reviewing facts and figures.
Social science and humanities majors tend to have a mixture of essays and projects with the occasional final exam thrown in. These types of finals are more suited to application-based testing. With essays and projects, students are expected to display an ability to apply the concepts that they have learned over the course of the semester. These types of finals are better suited for demonstrating a depth of knowledge for a subject than simple memorization-based testing.
At the end of each semester, students are subjected to the hell on earth known as “finals week.” Almost every class has something all at the same time—whether it’s a test, a project or a paper. In most classes, these finals represent a major portion of each students’ grades. The problem with finals week is evident in the name: it takes place in one week. Having one week that can make or break your grade in not just one of your classes, but all of them, results in finals week not being a test of students’ knowledge, but their stress management and study skills. The outcome is that finals, and the grades received on them, are not an accurate reflection of learning or effort.
Finals may be inconsistent in form, but their purpose is universal as a cumulative process that exemplifies one’s class experience. Sometimes that cumulative effort can lead to rewarding results and reaffirm the knowledge gained over a significant period of one’s life; however, when that is not the case, it becomes a demotivating source of stress whose necessity is outweighed by its destruction to our mental stability.
Advice: If you’re a professor, ask students how they feel they should be assessed based on the material of your course. For students, try to find self-satisfaction in either the final itself or the fact that you made it through another semester—because it’s not always about the grade, it’s about what you learned along the way … until next semester.
Photo Credit:
“Final Exam” by szeke is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.
