Lurking in the shadows of Russell House and Williams-Brice are final exams. They are silently sneaking their way into every student’s life. They start in August as a mere date on a syllabus but slowly and surely come to dominate USC students' every waking hour come November. Students become obsessed with memorizing facts they will most likely forget the second the exam is over, begin frantically putting together projects or start researching a final paper topic with fervor.
Final exams are seen as the grade above all other grades and for good reason, too. Many final exams account for anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of a student’s overall grade. One of my professors cheerfully reminded my class this morning that unless we have a 100 percent overall in the course, there is no way we can pass without taking the final.
Quite frankly, finals are absurd. The idea that an entire third of a student’s grade rides on cramming enough information into his or her brain for a single assessment is ridiculous. Professors become hung up on the idea of fitting all their material into their classes before the final so that it will appear on the exam. Finals simply encourage professors to teach to the test and not to the student.
Non-cumulative final exams are more bearable. These types of final exams mean that instead of having to fit an entire semester’s worth of slides and quizzes into their brains, students only need to focus on the material between the midterm and the final. Non-cumulative final exams are a more educational and, to put it bluntly, humane way to test students’ knowledge. It is far more reasonable for a professor to expect students to memorize a few weeks’ worth of recent material then a few months' worth of material — some of which has not been discussed since the first week of school.
Finals take away the joy that is learning. Learning truly can be fun and educational at the same time, contrary to the common belief that seems to be held by educational systems these days. College kids want to learn; that's why we are spending thousands of dollars a year. But, when we put students in high pressure situations like having to memorize an entire textbook’s worth of information for one exam, the joy of learning is lost.