Putting a semester’s worth of content into a singular test sounds like a nightmare. Imagine repeating that in around five other classes with only a week to prepare, not to mention the burnout that students feel after 16 weeks of constant effort. All of these factors combine to make the most dreaded week of the semester for students: finals week.
Final exams are a part of college life, no matter a student’s major or university. Ever since middle school, finals week was met with unease, not only for me but for countless other students as well. College courses shouldn’t conduct finals for a myriad of reasons. Stress is heightened during finals week due to deficient self-care leading up to finals and exam anxiety.
Since finals start right after the last unit ends, students have no choice but to cram the last unit in addition to all of the other material. With finals, the tests come first. All other forms of self-care, such as regular exercise and even human interaction, are often brushed aside.
Poor self-care is a major factor in exam anxiety. Just the thought of taking an exam can spike stress levels in students who haven’t been taking care of themselves. If finals weren’t required in college, stress levels among students could significantly decrease.
Sleep is also reduced when students cram for finals, as they stay up late into the night only to wake up a few short hours later. Cramming places an unhealthy amount of stress on the brain and pushes it past capacity. When the brain is overworked, students' stress levels increase, panic begins and, of course, anxiety takes control.
Students have already proven that they know the content throughout the semester, making a final exam useless. Professors hand out homework, quizzes or activities to allow students time to practice unit material. At the end of each unit, students take an exam on what they’ve practiced to ensure their knowledge without any assistance. Since students have already demonstrated their knowledge, there’s no point in having them prove it again in a final exam.
Furthermore, final exams aren’t an efficient way to assess knowledge in courses. While taking a regular exam can prove a student’s understanding, final exams are taken when students are under extreme stress. Due to the tests taking place in one stressful week, finals typically don’t capture a student’s full understanding of the content. By eliminating finals in college, students can be judged based on their effort and comprehension throughout the semester.
Final exams ultimately have the power to make or break a student’s grade due to them being weighted. The weight usually ranges anywhere from 10-20% in classes, making the final a significant chunk of any grade.
However, students find that finals are much more likely to bring a grade down than up. If a student puts in hard work all semester to keep an A, they would have to get roughly their current grade or higher to maintain this grade. Anything lower than their average test score can tank their grade with little to no way of bringing the grade back up. Given the outside factors that finals week brings about, a student may get a lower final grade for a number of reasons even though they’ve already shown they understand the material.
Some people argue that finals are necessary to make sure students haven’t forgotten information and can recite it on an exam. In fact, students will only retain 21% of the information they learned a month ago. Take that over an entire semester, and it’s inevitable that students have forgotten quite a bit. However, it’s natural for students to forget information, and taking finals is no way to fix this.
Final exams shouldn’t be in college courses because they cause immense stress and are generally unnecessary.
Kennedy Lawrence is a Sophom*ore Journalism and ADPR double major. Reach her at [email protected].
