With finals approaching, I thought it was only fitting to write another rant discussing my thoughts on finals. First off, I don’t enjoy how much emphasis schools put on them. Finals are meant to be a test of how much knowledge you have acquired during the semester or school year. However, what if someone was able to learn a very good amount of stuff and is proficient in the skills taught in the class but is not necessarily a good test taker. Because many teachers stress the final so much, that student is probably going to be a worse test taker when it comes to something as big as a final. And, even if the student has a high grade in the class because they are proficient in the class and understand the concepts, since they are such a bad test taker, their grade could plummet to a number that doesn’t represent their true understanding of the class. This can be true especially because some teachers make the final such a significant portion of the grade overall.

If I were to provide a solution for this issue, I would recommend the teacher to provide different methods for students to prove their understanding of the course. They could do a traditional written test, or maybe a presentation of some sorts. The means of displaying comprehension could vary in general based on the class, but I feel this would be a more fair way to test the student’s knowledge without completely erasing the finals system, as I do think it is important to some degree. Another thing is making the final count for no more than 25% of the grade. Finals that range from 30% and up are solely testing the student on how good of a test taker they are. One of the more telling aspects of a grade, in my opinion, are class participation and homework grade. Both of these demonstrate not only enthusiasm and effort of a student, but also how dedicated they truly are the learning the material.

To conclude, I don’t believe the current education system is exactly fair, particularly when it comes to finals and their impact on a student’s grade. If teachers could provide more means of testing, as well as not have it count for the majority of the overall grade, many solid students would not have their grades falter due to unfair and unaccomodating methods.

PC: https://news.stonybrook.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/stress.jpg