Cumulative. Final. Exams.
The very thought of it makes every student shudder.
To put it frankly, cumulative exams suck. All students hate them, and their feelings are understandable: they must study all the material they learned—or were supposed to learn—over the entire semester.
And why do professors like to give cumulative exams? What do they have to gain from putting their students through such pain? I have no idea.
If it were up to me, and most every student in America, final exams would not be cumulative.
Assume most students at Augustana take five classes a semester, and those five cumulative final exams must encompass everything learned over approximately 35 class periods per class. That means that to prepare for final exams, students must review the material they learned over 175 class periods. And, of course, this is in addition to any final papers or projects those classes also require. Seriously, professors?
Another complaint I have with cumulative final exams is that students cannot be totally sure they are understanding the material correctly. If the previous test had been at midterm, or even just a few weeks prior to the final exam, what about the rest of the material the class has learned and has not been tested over? How are we supposed to know we've been understanding the recently learned material correctly if we've never been tested over it? As far as I'm concerned, a test or quiz is the only way to know I'm really understanding something. Then, when I get the test back and see whether I aced or bombed it, I know whether I need to visit with the professor or sit back and bask in my intelligence. It's not fair to test us over something that we're not sure if we even understand.
I know that cumulative final exams have been the norm for as long as any of us can remember, but that doesn't mean it's the only way to go. I encourage professors to find alternate ways to test their students' knowledge. It will cause everyone a lot less stress, and, professors, it will probably make you the most popular person on campus. What's not to like about that?
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