Students reap benefits from cumulative semester finals

Despite stress, cumulative tests pay off

William Phelan

Semester finals are the best way for teachers to cap off the semester for a variety of reasons.

Although students may not enjoy spending long hours pouring over notes, these cumulative assessments are preparing students for the rest of their lives.

  Cumulative finals are commonplace in college, so it does not do any good for teachers to let their students off easy by deciding against a cumulative assessment during high school.

If students don’t have experience preparing for cumulative tests, they will not know how to prepare for finals if they pursue further education.

  Another main concern students may have is how finals will impact their final grade.

The semester final will impact your grade exactly the way you choose it to.

If students are truly motivated to get a high grade in a class they will spend appropriate amounts of time preparing for a test. The same preparations should go into studying for finals.

Those students who don’t are likely not deserving of the high marks they desire.

  Another benefit of cumulative semester finals is that they are a great tool for both teachers and students to evaluate whether the material is being learned, or temporarily memorized.

This long-term learning of a subject is valuable because classes often build on each other.

  Even though students may wish they did not have cumulative finals because of the amount of studying they require, these tests are ultimately for their own good.