Questionable Schedule For Final Exams
Why are final exams scheduled for days other than the class?
The fall semester is coming to an end and students are beginning to take final exams. If a student has class on Mondays and Wednesdays it is now brought to attention that several courses are scheduling their final on an opposite day like Tuesday or Thursday and vice versa.
Although it is possible that reasons behind scheduling a final exam on a day that students do not have class could be due to wanting to give extra time for lectures and notes, it is still a bit aggravating to know that students should have to move their schedules around to fit an exam on a day the class is not assigned.
It would be much simpler to assign the final exams to be taken during a student’s class time. That is if the exam needs to be taken in person.
Online course exams are open for a few days giving students the privilege to take the exam when it is convenient for them or when they feel most prepared. Although some in person classes go by the same strategy, most in person classes still require an in person exam.
Professors may need the time to finish teaching their students any last minute information that could increase the probability of students passing the exam with a high score. This might be the reason why final exams are scheduled on a different day than class day. However, what might be convenient for faculty and staff may not be so convenient for students.
Outside of school, students still have jobs, homework, family, and other business to take care of. Not to mention the other courses that students still take aside from the specific course assigning those exam dates. What if the student has another class scheduled at the same time of the exam? That student would then have to miss that class in order to take the exam. Sure most school systems would count that as an excused absence and would not allow for it to penalize the student but the student would miss out on any important information that was taught for that course.
It may seem simple to say that there is a way around all of these situations that could help students work with this set exam schedule but as mentioned before, what if the student works? Would they have to call out of work? Not all jobs respect school time and could threaten to fire them. Several students are also married and with children. How will they provide for their homes and family if an exam costs them their job? Even with the fact that several students schedule their courses accordingly, many might have to find who will take care of their children if they have to go and take an exam on a day outside of their regular schedule.
Several school systems do offer childcare to student-parents but the list of what if questions still goes on. Students do not have to be parents or working to find that scheduling exams on opposite days of their class time could be inconvenient for them.
It can be concluded that although situations don’t have to be as big. However, an opinion still remains in which scheduling an exam for a course on a day the class is not assigned can result in a lot of obstacles for several people. It would be much more efficient to have students take their exams on the course day or class hours.