Matthew Haughey

My spouse is a university professor that came up with an interesting idea. A week before finals, she does a review session and shows every student their current class grade.

Then she says you can take the cumulative final next week if you want to improve on it but if you’re happy with your grade, skip the final w/o penalty and this grade will be your course grade.

Results are fascinating. Usually 50-75% opt out of the finals.

Dec 13, 2023 at 7:36pmWeb
Show threadMatthew HaugheyDec 13, 2023
I personally would have done this often. One less final each semester if I was in the A range or at like 85% and not likely to get up a full grade? Sign me up.
Show threadScott Wright 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Dec 13, 2023
@mathowie a HS teacher of my son HATED finals - lots of work for both teachers and students, lots of stress, very rarely changed a grade
Show threadEvan ProdromouDec 13, 2023
@mathowie The Monty Hall Paradox!
Show threadIainSinclairDec 13, 2023
@mathowie My high school did this. Any course you had above a 70% average, you could opt out of the final. It was glorious.
Show threadhapaxDec 13, 2023

@mathowie I had several classes in college like this, they were great!

I was bitten by this once tho: I had to take a statistics class, which I was pretty awful at for most of the semester. I managed to scrape together a B going into the final however, which made me feel confident that I could ace it and manage to get up to an A! I took the final instead of staying home, got something like a 30/100, and knocked my grade down to a C 🤦‍♂️ I never took the final again if a class did this option!!

Show threadFeralRobotsDec 13, 2023
@mathowie my wife hasn't normally done finals but she's often done something functionally similar. She uses a point system that allows a student to know their final grade at any time given their currently accumulated points. This sometimes results on them skipping one or more assignments. (Final assignments often end up not having tremendous weight because she likes to scaffold assignments and front-load the heavy stuff to prevent big end-of-term deliverables.)
Show threadAdam Shostack  Dec 13, 2023

@mathowie @riana I think final exams are useful for a very limited set of assessment goals and if you’ve already checked those you’re just checking retention under stress.

I shifted from final exam to final paper with a set of associated homework (proposal, draft, peer review, final) and think it’s a helpful learning experience to be summarizing and using the things you’ve learned. Very happy with that shift.

Show threadJayDec 13, 2023
@mathowie That's amazing. I would opt out too if my grades were decent enough.
Show threadSteve BellovinDec 13, 2023
@mathowie @riana During Covid, when my university had mandatory pass/fail, I told my class that everyone was passing, so I wouldn't give a final unless enough people wanted to. Many students insisted, so I excused any student who had even a quarter-decent reason why.