Why Finals are a Crock

Yes it's that time of year. The beginning of May use to mean wonderful things for me. My birthday was coming up, school was getting out, and vacations were coming soon. This was well and good until the 7th grade. That year Finals began to plague my life. I remember how stressed I was back in those awkward days. Today I have to actually have to study for them. So what? Everyone has to take finals right? Only because it is logically a good idea (using italic words make me feel important). Like many things in life, it sounds great on paper.

I have a few bones to pick with this system however. First of all, I want to know who remembers what their professor said on the first day of lecture. Secondly, I want to know what professor loved finals when he/she was in college. Aside from pure distaste for the system, I do have some legitimate points in which I have set out in a beautifully (my 5th grade teacher loved it when we used adverbs) organized list.

1. The average college student doesn't study until the day before the exam. If you know me you know I'm against grade inflation, but give us a break! Most of us spent most of our high school career learning through osmosis. We never studied and probably made fun of people who did.
2. Introductory classes carry WAY to much information for a comprehensive final. Next semester when I take HY 300 - History of Brazil I'll be expected to know everything about the history of Brazil. That's legitimate. I'm taking it as an upper level class which means I'm truly interested in it (not to mention the fact that I'm a history major). This semester I'm taking Geography 101. This class has absolutely nothing to do with my major (by the way I'm failing it with flying colors). The University of Alabama requires me to take 2 science classes as part of my major. Thankfully I took an introductory Biology class in high school, so I only have to take one. As a cop out I decided to take Geography 101. What should have been an easy A has turned into this late night at the Gorgas library studying. An 85 on the final to pass the class? Sounds like an easy A to me.
3. Tests are a poor indicator of how much a student knows about the topic, especially if the structure of the test is confusing or otherwise constructed poorly. The best example I can give of this is my Western Civilization class this semester. I can go into a test knowing the material. Knowing it so well that I could almost recite the notes to you. My teacher is a good guy and structures the tests for those who may not be too terribly fond of history (rightfully so its a REQUIRED class the university makes you take, much like science). This entails short multiple choice tests that take about ten minutes to complete. Give me the test in a fill in the blank format and I'll make a perfect score. How about Geography 101? Well I knew on day one my life was going to be a living hell after hearing the comment that "you'll see things on the tests that I won't talk about in class or will be in text, you're just expected to know it." (I could write an entire post about this guy...)

These reasons mean nothing in the scheme of things, however. After all, how can we measure a student's knowledge on a particular subject if we don't assess (thank you education classes!)him/her. Traditional colleges assess students traditionally (which is logical, as i said before). So until the great college revolution of 2198 (the year the world discovers this post), we are just going to have to deal with power trip 101 teachers, and poor preparation for college finals.