Eyes burn red, hands quiver and heads nod as a combination of eyestrain, stimulant abuse and sleep deprivation sweep across the student population preparing for a week jam-packed with tests.
Final exams are stressful and ineffective tools for student learning. It is time for the educational system to evolve and move away from tests that have been used since the mid-1800s.
When a student graduates and goes on to start a career, he or she is sure to come across challenges at work. One day the boss will come to him or her with a problem to fix. In that situation, will there be a 100 question multiple-choice test?
Of course these future employees will not be handed tests. They will be given real-life problems that require experience and critical thinking skills, not the regurgitation of countless PowerPoint slides of information.
Since this is the case, tests should not make or break a student’s success.
Besides testing’s irrelevance to future work demands, they also contribute to the ever-rising stress of college students. According to a 2014 National Survey of College Counseling Centers, 52 percent of students seeking help had severe psychological problems — up 14.6 percent from 2012.
The rise of stress and mental health issues comes at the expense of learning. According to a 2008 study by Dr. Tallie Z. Baram, both long-term and short-term stress impairs cell communication in the regions of the brain involved in learning and memory.
If stress is associated with lowered learning and memory capacity, then the most crucial part of a student’s grade should not be the most stressful.
Educators need to take these factors into account when planning coursework. Professors do not need to completely eliminate semester-end tests, but some of its point value should be distributed among more engaging assignments like essays, projects and presentations that require critical thinking and research and provide real-world experience.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, more frequent testing is better for students than large midterms and finals. Administering quizzes at the start of each class increases overall performance and attendance compared to classes that only have a few large tests, according to a study by the University of Texas.
Technology in the 21st century allows educators to perform such frequent quizzing or similar forms of improved evaluation, but still these techniques are largely under-used. Instead, many students continue to find themselves frantically scribbling notes by the light of a projector for fear of missing a single factoid for the exam while they miss out on the lecture and the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion.
Leading educational institutions like Harvard have already moved away from the use of large exams, and it is time other schools follow suit.
With tuition increasing every year, surely the resources are available for every college to begin implementing new techniques that take into account both student achievement and mental health.