Students Shouldn’t Have Finals

Every year, I watch my peers scramble around finals season. From calculating their overall grade with potential percentages to ignoring their health. While students should be excitedly anticipating winter break, they are crumbling with fear for their grades. Most classes from high school onward have some form of summative assessment at the end of the semester and it is abhorrent.

Final exams create an overemphasis on test-taking rather than learning. Currently, UCLA Health estimates that 40-60% of students experience significant test anxiety. When these students are given a lengthy final exam, the stress that they undergo can put a significant strain on their performance. This means that many students who understand the concepts being tested frequently underachieve in their final exams. 

Many proponents of final exams claim that they are an essential metric of student learning. Without them, how can teachers assess whether the students actually understand the material? This comes from the misconception that the students who know what they’re talking about are the ones who do well. 

Throughout the year, students complete assignments and smaller quizzes that show their progress with the concepts. These assignments are often low-stress and emphasize learning rather than perfection. Students are able to work through problems and learn from each other. This type of dynamic environment yields better student outcomes than those who move through the course material with the end goal of getting a good score on a final exam.

If this wasn’t bad enough for student wellness, finals regularly make up a formidable portion of their overall grades. After a whole semester of hard work, the outcome of a single test can jeopardize their grades. Typical finals range anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of a student’s grades, meaning that one bad day can make or break a student’s scores. With such prevalent testing anxiety and other situational factors that teens go through, any misfortune can easily impact their performance.

After a final exam is taken, there is often no time for students to do things like test corrections or retakes, which often have significant benefits for concept mastery. Rather than being able to see what concepts need to be reinforced or being able to improve on weak points, these tests create an “end all be all” in which students with learning gaps don’t generally receive further support. 

By the end of the semester, students are expected to know certain concepts. Unfortunately, most of the time these concepts are isolated to the units they are taught in. Rather than growing skills integrated throughout the year, once a unit is completed the material is rarely looked back over until a brief review period before the exam. Many students are forced to relearn concepts by teaching themselves things that will be tested. While this is partially indicative of teacher deficiencies in connecting material, it is a very common reality. Because final exams are so normalized, teachers then expect students to be prepared for assessments on things they learned sometimes months prior without ever seeing it again.

Due to this, many students must then put in strenuous effort in the weeks leading up to finals. Many students stay up late and prioritize their studies over their well-being. While this is a great reflection of their work ethic, it isn’t healthy for schools to teach kids that the results of a single test are worth neglecting self-care. This is often a tragic cycle in which the lack of sleep from studying leads to worse student outcomes on tests.

This also encourages cramming. Unfortunately, preparation for these tests results in more short-term knowledge than an overall understanding of the topics. Close to 99% of students admit to cramming for exams, and half of them plan to rely on it. Since these students are cramming, only a small fraction of the content will be remembered by the time they get back from winter or summer break. There are far better uses for these students’ time, but instead, these exams steal their precious youth as they are forced to prepare for something that serves them no benefit other than maintaining their grades.

Ultimately, finals are a nonconducive approach to student assessment. Rather than fostering growth, learning, and cooperation, final exams hurt student mental health in a season that already leaves many struggling. Students sacrifice their sleep and sanity while isolating themselves to waste time studying for something that won’t accurately assess them or help them in the long run. Finals are so normalized as a part of academia, but they leave little room for improvement and further learning. Students would be far better off if teachers integrated more review into their lesson plans and focused on the real-world application of their teachings at the end of the semester.