Finals Fiesta!

…and what an appropriate quote THAT is for finals week here at the finest academic institution within 20 miles of itself. It really is amazing to see the different styles of all of the students really come out to play during finals week. I do, however, have a bone to pick with those monstrous tests… hear me out:

One day, long, long ago there was an evil, evil man who tought an wretched, horrible class. This man, who we’ll call… umm… Lucifer, decided that there ought to be one giant, gargantuan test at the end of his wretched, horrible class. The main intention of the test was NOT to determine how much everyone had learned, rather, it was to scare the excrement out of his students. No doubt, that being the first final, it worked pretty well.

Today, however, it seems that professors and teachers have forgotten about giving their students nervous break-downs and have focused more on trying to find out what the student has learned. I think, however, that the grading system of most educators is akin to finding a cockroach in the kitchen and throwing the cutting board down on top of it… and then pushing the refrigerator over on the cutting board… and then dropping your Chevy F-350 on the refrigerator with a crane… and then — well, you get the idea. (Note: In Florida this may actually be necessary)

Why do I say that? Most classes give a standard series of assignments, and/or quizzes, and/or tests throughout the course of the year, only to be followed up with a comprehensive final at the end. Strangely, that final is usually worth a significant portion of the grade. SOO, realistically speaking, one could struggle through the class, making D’s on everything, then study really hard (or have it finally click) get an A on the final, and still walk out with a C in the class. Does a ‘C’ actually reflect what you’ve learned? No… it demonstrates what you’ve been able to pick up on the first try.

What’s even worse is those folks who don’t give comprehensive finals, but still make the final worth a huge portion of the grade. Is the last stuff for the year REALLY that much more important than the stuff at the beginning?

There are several methods that I personally think are pretty fair. For starters, you have the one test, one grade system. Most students tend to NOT like having their entire class grade determined by one test. It’s not NICE but it’s pretty FAIR. Then, of course, you have the no final system. The best grading system that I’ve ever encountered was in Discrete Mathematics.

Professor Dijkstra had a beautiful system laid out. Every test was comprehensive. That’s right, every single one (this is easy to do in a math class). The really cool thing, though, was that if your current test grade was higher than your average, it BECAME your average. If it was LOWER than your average, your new average was something like 2 x Your old average + Your test grade / 3. It was weighted more heavily on the old average.

This seems a little too “nice” but there’s good logic behind it (and why not, coming from a Discrete Professor): If you have an A average, and get a B on the test… the assumption is that you must be having a hard time with the NEW stuff… the old stuff you already have an A on, and it’s already been tested… so the test should obvously be worth less. What about the final? It was just another test. Not any longer, not any more difficult, just another test.

I much prefer this system to a final-less system with no comprehensive tests because it gives you a chance to learn the stuff you may have been struggling with and really encourages you to try to learn stuff from the beginning of the year ALL YEAR LONG. (As an aside: I walked into the “final” in that class with a B average and got a 96% on the final.)

Of course, there are always exceptions… like Computer Science courses where you’re dealing with programming projects and tests. Other classes, like Lit classes might not fare well under one of these systems either. I’m sure there are all sorts of other exceptions… but nevermind them… DOWN WITH FINALS!!