Point – William Murphy
As the school year comes to a close, students from across the country prepare themselves for one of the busiest times of the year academically: final exams. But there’s one county that stands alone; Montgomery County hasn’t had finals since 2016. This year is no different, with thousands of students seamlessly moving from one grade level to the next. However, this transition is flawed and students should be required to take finals, as they help students prepare for college and are key to helping students maintain their knowledge.
A little before high schoolers, college students are taking their finals. These extensive exams are the bane of college students’ existence as they can be the difference between passing a class and failing one. Every college student has to take them and finals week brings a lot of stress and havoc, with many hours and late nights spent studying.
Students will be able to take on that stress and havoc if they have done it before. Final exams can simulate those collegiate finals without such high stakes. Students will be able to build study habits and gain experience that will transfer over to the collegiate landscape.
Also, what is the point of learning something if you’re going to forget it in a few weeks? I’ve taken a test on something and have forgotten everything a few days later. I don’t retain a lot of the new knowledge and having an extensive test covering everything from that semester or year ensures that the knowledge gained is applied later on. Many tasks outside of school require applying your knowledge to problems and a final is nothing more than just applying your knowledge to an exam.
Some argue that finals bring a lot of unnecessary stress. If MCPS did bring back finals, I believe that there should be no homework or major tests the week leading up to the exam so that students can study and mental health can be prioritized.
Finally, finals help boost grades. With final exams being a big portion of the final grade, a good score can make a huge difference. Many students, including myself, have fallen a point or few short of their desired letter grade. Imagine being able to bump up your grade from an 87.5% to a 90.2% in the last week of the semester. Although grades can also go down from a bad final grade, if you study hard enough and know the material, anyone can succeed.
Counterpoint – Ian Alves
Finals have a number of downsides. First and foremost, they have the potential to severely harm students’ grades and health. Anybody close to a higher or lower grade is likely not going to feel saved by a massive exam they have to prepare for alongside the classwork they already receive. Instead, extra credit assignments or any possible make-up work are much better alternatives for necessary grade boosts that come without the stress of a single make-or-break test.
Additionally, finals are biased towards certain types of students. This may sound like a weird statement, but there are a number of factors sometimes out of a student’s control that would impact their success on a final exam. Student-athletes, for instance, oftentimes cannot study as frequently as people without an after school sport. Some students also have jobs and other obligations. There are a number of influences largely beyond a student’s control, both in and out of school, that will affect their scores no matter what, making the system unfair for many students.
Finally, many students already take huge exams at the end of the year. All AP classes stipulate taking the College Board examinations for college credit on all courses taken. This alone is more than sufficient at preparing students for a college-like experience and already requires that they properly recall everything they learned throughout the year, furthering the idea that finals are not completely negative but also aren’t necessary for every single class.
