By Alison Sandstrom, TLS staff writer
For many university students, sleepless nights spent cramming and hand cramps from furious writing are inevitable parts of exam season, and therefore unavoidable parts of university. But some professors have started to drop final exams from their courses entirely in favour of more frequent smaller assignments, and they’re pleased with the results.
Political science professor Mira Sucharov says structuring her courses around final exams forced her to make her lectures heavy on facts, figures and PowerPoint slides.
“To me it became a bit of a vicous circle,” she says. “Students would come to class, I would lecture and pour lots of details into them for them to write furiously as notes and later have to reproduce in a final exam format.”
Replacing final exams with weekly readings and an attendance grade has allowed Sucharov to be more spontaneous and incorporate more discussion into her lectures.
“The classroom environment is more lively,” she says. “Students are looking at me more than at their pens and paper or laptops.”
Philosophy professor Annie Larivée usually includes exams in her history-based courses, but has dropped them from many of her other classes. She says courses that deal with contemporary topics run better without final exams because they “are not a matter of just learning facts that are already established, but more about developing a capacity to make sense of our experience.”
Larivée says teaching Philosophy of Feminism with weekly written assignments, usually reading reviews, in the place of a final exam changed the spirit of the course entirely.
“We were doing the work together in the classroom. It was extremely satisfying for the students, not just to learn things, but to learn how to learn together and to be part of the creation of knowledge,” she says.
Students told her they were more motivated to succeed in the course because they knew they were doing the work for their own sake, not just to fulfill requirements.
As for those who argue that the stress of final exams prepares students for the stress of the real world, Sucharov points out that exam conditions are highly artificial. People very rarely encounter highly structured, timed writing exercises, like exams outside of their education.
Larivée says students’ mental health is another reason to avoid exams. She’s seen students break down in panic attacks during them.
“Why put my students through that kind of traumatizing experience if I can avoid it?” she says. “I personally don’t learn well under stress, and I don’t think anxiety is a good way to motivate people.”
Do you think final exams are necessary? Or have you found alternatives for your courses? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below or emailing oavptl@carleton.ca.