By Karen Trinh, Editor-in-Chief and Katrya Ly, News Editor
With finals week underway, several teachers have decided on different takes for an end-of-the-semester assessment, such as final projects and socratic seminars.
Some have decided to administer the traditional multiple-choice exam. However, others have opted for various types of finals, such as multiple choice/free response combination, take-home essays and projects.
“The students have taken many quizzes and tests in class and I feel that an interactive and visual project that is entertaining will engage them and hopefully help them in learning and retaining more of the material,” said AP Economics teacher Sarah McCance.
In addition to the differences in final exams, teachers have different approaches when it comes to the weight of their finals. While some feel that their exams should be worth more because it covers a whole semester worth of knowledge, others, such as AP biology teacher Emily Barro, feel that the final should not be a reflection of the work students put in for a whole semester.
“All semester has been important. Although the cumulative final is important to assess the knowledge acquired throughout the semester, I don’t want it to outweigh the hard work my students have done all semester,” said Barro.
According to some teachers, certain types of finals may be hard to grade within a short amount of time, thus limiting teachers’ abilities to administer this type of test. Many have chosen their style of testing for its time efficiency, such as multiple choice tests.
Other teachers have chosen their specific type of test with a goal in mind. For English teacher David Theriault’s classes, he is having his students present their blogs during class.
“Reflection is the last stage of learning. My students are reflecting and proposing ‘next steps’ on their student blogs,” said Theriault.
In the case of teachers who have Advance Placement (AP) classes, they aim to assess their students’ readiness for the AP exam in May.
“I want my AP students to see how they are doing thus far so they can gauge how they might do on the AP exam in May,” said Barro. “Their final should give them a good idea of what to expect on their AP exam.”
While finals are weighted and worth more in some classes than others, many teachers feel that such assessments are needed to showcase what students have accomplished over the course of the semester.
“The final exam is the culmination of a semester worth of material,” said math teacher Shannon Atkins. “It is the way that students show me that they’ve learned the material and understand it thoroughly, not that they just memorized something for a chapter test and forgot it.”
