Final exam

[medo]

Hello,

just finished reading one article about the final tests (Education, Time: June19, 2000) and because it is a USA problem I want to hear your opinion (if you are in interest) about final exams.
My school system was different. We had to be ready every day to answer questions (and be marked) from our subject teacher. We had tests too, but their impact on the final grade wasn’t as big as it is in the USA. Those tests were during the year, but the most important were our answers during daily class.

Medo

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[qball]

Final Exams are part of the American Education process, though neither students or teachers like them.

Final Exams, for the most part, test the students ability to remember the subject area. If I was a teacher, I would be more interested in the students ability to comprehend and understand the subject area.

Maybe my argument is related to test taking in general, but applying knowledge is more important to me than just obtaining knowledge.

[wyvrn]

My physics class in high school was great. We made several projects throughout the year and competed against one another. Not only did we have a blast doing it, but we learned the "why" of physics instead of just memorizing a formula and pugging some numbers into our calculator. Thes projects counted for like 1/3 of our total grade. I think one of the tragic problems with the USA school system (and why we lag behind most other top countries) is because we refuse to pay well for teachers, do not enforce discipline in the classroom, and give things like final exams and such that require more memorization than learning. This continued over into college for me, where as a Texas A&M Aggie (whoooop!), my typical class was over 300 students to 1 teacher and 1 student aid. Needless to say, I did more memorizing and less discussion about my class subjects. The American education system needs to be year-round (with ample holidays and short breaks built in) so that we can learn more in depth about subjects, especially the maths and physics which can require hours of practice and study for some of us http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif I think having a 3 month summer break is not a luxury anymore, but a road block. Most people learn more efficiently when information is presented in a consistent manner, rather than having to "cram" 12 hours before an all-important final test where we are not going to remember diddly squat 10 days later.

[brandon184]

I recently had my final exams, and two of the finals were worth 50% of the term mark for that subject.

- Brandon