With the end of the semester approaching, many are looking forward to the much-needed sleep or fun times they may spend with friends and family, however, there is one thing we have to get through first: finals.

     Whether it is because of a busy schedule or procrastination, last-minute studying is done by many students. With some students having to take multiple finals, sometimes cramming for the final may feel like the only option, however, it is an ineffective strategy. It is easy to think about the stress that comes with finals, but what if our study habits are part of what is causing it?

     According to Young Growth Academy, a tutoring service, “Cramming is an ineffective learning strategy because it depends on a student’s stress levels. A person can only learn so much information in a short period.”

     Finals are a way for students to prove they learned something over the semester, but do they accurately measure how much we have learned over the semester?

     I have never seen finals as something to measure what I have learned over the semester. Instead, I see it as how much I can relearn in a short amount of time to get a good grade in a class. Many are just learning enough information to pass the test and not learning the material. As students, it is common for us to cram for finals, and with many having to do multiple in two days, who could blame us?

     There is a lot of stress and pressure associated with finals. I check my grades for classes throughout the semester to avoid being surprised when finals roll around, but I never know what my grade will be until that final test is graded, and that stresses me out more than the actual test. 

     Part of gaining knowledge is learning what we got wrong, and with finals, we cannot do that. Oftentimes, if the final is an actual test and not just a reassessment opportunity, you will not see how you did on the final. Yes, you will know your score, but you will not know the questions you got wrong or why you got them wrong. If finals were actually about assessing how much a student knows, it would also be beneficial for students to see what they got wrong.

     Finals cause more stress for students and with many of us only learning enough information to do well on the test, they serve no purpose in measuring how much we know.