Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Tests lead to more stress than learning
By Katie Sarreshteh
The Maneater (U. Missouri)
12/04/2007

(U-WIRE) COLUMBIA, Mo. — When you all move into Club Ellis next week, I will be living the dream — a finals week with no finals. Somehow, all of my classes ended up having some sort of paper or project in lieu of tests.

I am happier than Paris Hilton the day she left jail. I know not all of you are so lucky, and I know how it is. Finals week is incredibly stressful and can really take a toll on our bodies. Adderall can be a lifesaver — I probably wouldn't have passed half of my classes without it — but it can seriously fuck with your body.

When I'm on it, I don't eat, I chain smoke and can't sleep. I crash for a few days after taking it. But that's what we are pushed to. Excelling in too many cumulative finals within one week is not very attainable without outside help. Students are so concerned with their grades that sometimes actual learning takes a backseat.

I have a friend that spent three days without sleeping to pull off a good grade on a geology test and still didn't ace it. I doubt she remembers anything about those silly rocks. Classes with two or three big tests and a final don't offer much incentive to actively engage in the learning process. They also don't encourage attending class, especially those with notes online — those are the worst. Why go to class if you can log on naked in the comfort of your own bed?

I have always enjoyed smaller classes that I am required to attend. It makes all the difference when your professor knows your name and opinions and doesn't just think of you as a number. In smaller classroom settings, there is time for discussion on the material studied. When you can hear other people talking about the stuff, it makes a lot more sense than when you are blindly reading dull textbooks or cramming for a bizarre test. There has to be a better way to see what we have learned throughout the semester. The system has us so concerned with our grade-point averages that we do crazy things to get good grades without absorbing what we are exposed to. Making flashcards and memorizing information for a test and forgetting it immediately after taking it isn't what we should be doing.

I can't blame the test system completely. Many other students and I should do more to prepare throughout the semester. Maybe then it wouldn't be as tough. Still, something needs to be done to promote learning, not just looking for a grade. Scantrons definitely need to go. Coloring in little bubbles doesn't measure very much. We need to be able to describe things in our own words and actually write out what we learned. Professors would probably frown on this. God forbid they have actually grade something instead of sending it through a machine. We need to be engaged throughout the semester. In larger classes, smaller discussion groups or something to that affect would be helpful. The best thing to do would be to scrap finals week all together — they prove nothing.

This won't be happening anytime soon, so enjoy your week of debauchery. I'll be sleeping in.

I will miss camping out at Club Ellis this finals week. It actually is pretty exciting; everyone is there. You never know whom you are going to run into. Maybe I'll just go in there and pretend to do work. I have to get some face time in before winter break.

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