As students at Berkeley High School make their way through the second semester of this school year, finals seem to be an ever looming presence. With AP testing, college applications, and the SAT piled on top of the consistent weight of academic pressure, the benefits and impacts of finals are constantly examined. Of the over 3,200 students enrolled in BHS, 58 percent of students took at least one AP exam, with 48 percent passing an AP exam, according to statistics from US News. The stress and cramming raises the question — are finals more harmful or helpful, and do they continue to be useful for teachers and students?
There are some benefits of finals to consider, such as teaching time management and stress management skills. Students also have a clear way to see what they have learned from the class and can use this information to make decisions about their academic future. “I noticed how passionate I was in my science classes, which inspired me to apply at the Lawrence Hall of Science and find more opportunities with science involved,” Aria Stults, a BHS sophomore, said. Students can see what topics they understand and what they can improve on that they may not have been aware of before. Additionally, finals give students another opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the material, sometimes in an uncommon format that matches students’ skillset better. “My English final got my grade from a B to an A, which was good for my GPA. It was a Socratic Seminar, and I didn’t have to do as much preparation as (I would’ve for) a written exam, which was better for my stress since other classes had longer tests,” Stults said.
Carolina Zamorano, a Spanish 3 teacher at BHS, noted that she has a general sense of how students will do on the finals she gives out. “With the test at the end of the first semester, it helped me a lot to see what I already knew, because I knew already who was going to do well and who wasn’t because you know your students. They do a lot of projects and conversations in class, so I can see who's making progress and who's not ... you have a surprise every now and then, but I knew how most (students) would do,” Zamorano said. Zamorano explained that she gave a paragraph assignment and an oral assessment for her first semester final this year. “I really like to have that one-on-one conversation, because in class, they talk mainly in their groups,” she added.
However, finals are critiqued for not contributing to students remembering the topics long-term. Some argue that finals encourage temporary knowledge, producing good test-takers, but not necessarily long-term comprehension. According to Dr. Art Kohn, professor at Portland State University School of Business, most new information learned won’t be saved to your long-term memory. In fact, 90 percent of that information will be forgotten within a week.
The American Test Anxiety Association found that students with testing anxiety scored around 12 points below students with lower anxiety, which is valued at around half of a letter grade. At Brown University, Counseling and Psychological Services shared that approximately 16-20 percent of students in schools today have high test anxiety, and another 18 percent have moderate test anxiety. Test anxiety can affect cognitive processes like memory capacity, which interferes with academic performance on exams. One BHS sophomore, Eva Ting, noted that some people will understand all the topics and still struggle in finals. “(Finals is) a stressful environment because you do it all at once, you have all of the tests in one week, so it’s a lot to cram in,” Ting said.
On the other hand, “Having a final exam forces students to go back and (relearn concepts), especially in math, because we're going to use that information again and again over the course of the rest of the time they're learning,” Benjamin Nathan, Advanced Math 2 and AP Calculus AB teacher at BHS, said. He emphasized that he values cumulative understanding and basic understanding all across the board in his class. Ting explained that finals have helped her because she is comfortable with standardized testing, though this isn’t the case for all students. “You have to review everything that’s (been taught) from the whole year and look back on stuff to remember it,” Ting said.
“(Finals) cause too much unnecessary stress for me, which makes it harder for me to remember [the material] later. Because it has such a big impact on my grade I get really worried, and I don’t think that one big test should represent my ability and knowledge in the whole class,” Stults said. Depending on how much a final is worth in a class' overall grade, finals give the possibility of changing a student's grade by a letter.
As finals season approaches once more, both the beneficial and harmful effects of the tests can be seen. On the positive side, finals can bump students' grades up and help with time and stress management. It can also help students get used to the environment for similar finals weeks in college, and refresh students’ knowledge of concepts they will need to know in the future.
On the other hand, finals inflict substantial stress for students and can have a negative impact on their grades, especially if they experience test anxiety. Additionally, in a study by the American Psychological Association, it was found that studying in multiple different sessions demonstrated more long-term memory benefits than cramming. While students participating in the study claimed to know that cramming is less beneficial, many still continued to use that strategy. Finals can also negatively affect students’ mental health and in turn, grades.
As education strategies and learning continue advancing, high school finals' pros and cons may have to be reevaluated. “(Finals) actually have helped me in the past ... but I feel like we have enough tests already throughout the year,” Ting said.