Formula For Finals

In college, final exams are a part of the academic formula. Put in a few papers, a midterm and a final and a grade pops out. Final exams in high school are a different mix. Students are often taking more courses and the nature of each final may vary widely. It is very easy to mess up the final exam recipe in high school.

In my twenty-five years as a high school teacher and my more recent experience as a high school parent, I have found that some practices make the final exam process beneficial and others create unnecessary stress and pain.

While both the students and teacher contribute to a positive final experience, most of the control is with the teacher. There is a straightforward formula that will help make the final not only a summative assessment but a good learning experience as well.

The teacher should start by providing students with detailed information about the nature of the final at least one week in advance. This information should include the form of the test (multiple choice, short answer, essay, etc), what the test will cover (the entire semester, the most recent unit), materials students may bring to the test (books, notes, old work), and some guidance on how to prepare.

Students frequently complain that the pace of teaching speeds up before finals. It should be the reverse. The pace should slow down as finals approach. There should not be any more quizzes, tests, papers, or assignments in the weeks before the end of the semester than there have been throughout the term. If a teacher has not made it to the finish line, the kids should not pay for that by having to run twice as fast to get there.

Spend several days, maybe even the last week of the semester, reviewing with students. Instruct them how to study for the final. If there must be homework at this time, connect it directly to the final studying process.

Have a unified final. Do not splinter a final into several pieces. The final exam should be a single paper, project or test that is due at the assigned final exam period. While it may be tempting to ask students to create another assessment, even if it is complementary or good preparation for the final, this practice amplifies students’ anxiety and stress and steals energy from their preparations for other exams. In my school, we call this double dipping. While there are a few exceptions to this rule (if the course involves pubic speaking, the speeches will never fit into a single testing period), double or triple dipping is really a sign that a teacher may be uncomfortable with the grade weight of the final itself. If one assessment experience should not be worth that much of the grade, that is the real issue.

Speaking of the weight of the final: one size doesn’t fit all. Should a first semester freshman final look like the final for seniors about to go to college? Should they be weighted the same? Finals should be tailored to the course, content, and students who are being assessed. If the grade weight of the final feels too much to the teacher, imagine how it might intimidate the students!

Make sure that the final is consistent with the assessments that students have already experienced. If you are going to collaborate with colleagues or use a departmental final, students should have already experienced unit, chapter, or other assessments that were created this way. If you have never given students an in-class writing test, for example, the final should not include one either.

Carefully time your final. Too many of my students’ and children’s finals are too long. Teachers then rationalize this by allowing students to take extra time. This is an insensitive and selfish solution. The time in-between finals belongs to the student, not the teacher. Many students use that time to prepare for the next final. Is it healthy for a student to go from one long and challenging final to another with barely enough time to go to the bathroom or review? If your final is consistent with earlier assessments, these should give you a good idea of how long students will need. Err on the side of shorter, rather than longer.

Examine the final grades closely. If the students and teacher have done their jobs well, grades on the final will resemble the grades from the rest of the semester. If a student who has earned A’s or B’s on the quarter does poorly on the final, it could be that she didn’t study well. If several students who did well struggle on the final, their preparations are probably not the cause.

Think twice before posting any grades where all students can see them. Of course, you would never post grades with student names, but ID numbers are not much better. In addition, giving students access to the whole class’s (or course’s) results is a set up for bullying, humiliation, and unhealthy academic competition.

The final exam of a course should represent the key skills and content that a student should take away from the learning experience. The final is the destination: the time when the teacher’s and student’s work is demonstrated and celebrated. Done well, they are a formula for successful learning. Done poorly, they are a stressful game of grade roulette.