on that I have learned over the last several months is still with me, I just had to go over it once to remember everything. However, for people that don't remember little facts and formulas for long periods of time, they have to study for hours just to recollect how to do it. My experience with the final exams is that they are generally not challenging problems, but rather a test to see how much you remember from previous chapters.This process of finals where they strictly test how much you remember from the semester pretty much defeats the purpose, or at least I think so. If teachers actually wanted to find out how much the students have learned, they should do some sort of project that tests whether the kids have learned how to go about something. An example of this could be that for chemistry we have to do a class lab (open note) where the teacher doesn't tell you the kids what to do. My chemistry teacher actually does stuff like that, but we are also taking the normal standardized final (probably because it is required by the department).
Finally, I don't get why finals are called finals. They only happen at the end of the year 50% of the time, and even then, what are they an end to? As my 9th grade English teacher used to tell us, "The learning will continue!" By the institution calling these examinations "final" they are hinting to us students that this is the last time we will have to remember all this material. But of course, our teachers don't want us to forget anything and expect us to keep reviewing everything we have learned. My English teacher from last year also devised a way to not call them finals. Instead of preparing for finals, he tells everyone that they are to prepare for "The Grand Celebration of Learning," which truly is what these tests should be.
2 comments:
I totally agree! I don't think a lot of teachers are accomplishing what they hope to by giving us the type of finals they do. It seems like most people just cram what they think they'll need to know for the final the weekend before and then forget what they "learned" after taking the test. Because of these kinds of exams, school has become more about grades and less about learning to a lot of people.
I also agree that certain finals have no purpose. To recall formulas and tiny details you've learned just for one last test doesn't make sense to me. These tests should not be worth 20% of our grades!
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