Cumulative final exams test student endurance, stress, anxiety

As winter break came to a close, students suddenly remembered the existence of final exams looming in the coming weeks. As dread and anxiety filled classrooms, many questions were raised about the testing in general. A common query was considering the amount of anxiety finals foster for so many students since finals make up 10% of your grade is ‘are they really all that necessary?’ It could be argued that semester exams only create inessential stress and anxiety upon the return  to school. Alas, on the other hand, it is important to ensure a retainment of information by testing students on a semester basis. 

A majority of, if not all, students attending any high school across the country do not particularly enjoy final exams. They can be exhausting and extremely mentally draining. There have been countless studies done proving just how mentally debilitating finals week can be for so many students. This is true for students of all ages and backgrounds, despite final exam policies varying from district to district throughout the country. Information from an entire semester can be difficult to study and even more difficult to showcase one's understanding, but the practice continues in an attempt to prepare students for a college experience that may or may not come. 

Although these points on student input and preference are not completely irrelevant and should be taken into consideration, the importance of final exams cannot be disputed. The studies on the importance of final exams have been known to override student input. Successfully managing to apply the information that a student has learned in a semester through a final exam is much more beneficial for overall comprehension of the course material than individual unit tests every so often. 

The reason as to why finals can be so anxiety-inducing is because these exams require more work to study and retain information than unit tests do. Finals require the studying of a semester’s material in totality. This can be a lot of work and can cause mental, even physical exhaustion, if done to an extreme extent. Therefore, if the teacher’s goal is long term retention of the material, a helpful option would be to have cumulative exams periodically throughout the semester that would build up to the semester final. This method prevents cramming, all-nighters, and prompts students to successfully retain all of the information.  

The reason that we have final exams is valid and encourages comprehension of the semester’s material. But the way students have to go about studying is what is so stressful. Learning material from an entire semester can seem overwhelming, almost insurmountable. This often causes cramming and all-nighters and overall mental exertion. Therefore, the question is not whether or not we should get rid of semester exams altogether; it is how teachers and districts should go about pacing exams and providing accessible study tools and methods to their students. 

This can be achieved in a variety of ways. Teachers can equip their students with more efficient studying techniques, more study guides/review assignments to do in class that cover an accumulation of all they have learned. If teachers are able to go over the course material in class, it prevents a lot of procrastination that comes with studying for final exams. This also takes the information of the class in smaller parts, rather than all of the material at once. Or, as stated previously, every unit test builds off of all previous information learned in the class. This would teach students to study this material more often anyway, and thus developing effective studying habits. 

Overall, while final semester exams continue to live on at West and in many high schools across the country, it is more efficient to handle them with cumulative pacing of tests throughout and providing and encouraging effective study habits consistently throughout the year. This way, until exams may or may not be eliminated in the future, anxiety and other symptoms of cramming, all-nighters, and stress can be prevented with healthier exam habits. 

by Anika Flores

Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue IV

January 31st, 2022