“Who doesn’t love the final exam? Wait, let me rephrase that: who loves the final exam?” said former high school teacher Dave Powell.  

High school finals cause stress, anxiety, and unneeded worry. With finals coming up many students are tired and don’t have the energy or initiative to study and stay on top of  incoming homework. Final exams are used as a final check of the knowledge students know.  However, some teachers believe that finals are unneeded because the work the students have completed already shows the knowledge they have.  

“Final exams represent much of what’s wrong with our approach to education these days,” said Powell.  

Final exams are a big part of the student’s grade; however, students have limited time to take the exam, they often need to learn everything from the whole year, and exams are held early in the morning.  This causes students to stay up late studying and  to be tired on exam day. This affects the scores of the students and their overall grade.

The final exam often doesn’t represent students’ grades accurately, or the type of student they are.

“The final becomes a meaningless afterthought, a punctuation mark at the end of a school semester that’s quickly forgotten, and at worst they throw a whole semester or year’s worth of work into chaos,” said Powell.  

Many teachers use exams to prepare students for college.  However, not all teachers agree that finals prepare students for college.  Students need to learn work ethics and study skills for college.  Finals don’t always prepare students for this.  These work ethics are taught throughout high school.  Often students cram before the final test, and this is not teaching them work ethics.  Finals can be replaced with heavier weighted tests, more projects, and stricter due dates.  This will teach students better work ethics and help prepare students for college where they can not slack as much.

Overall, final exams should not be in place.  They cause unneeded stress, anxiety, and lots of tears.  The student’s grade should be determined by his work ethic, ability to make deadlines, and dedication to the class.  Finals do not help students;they cause more harm than good.