THat issue has come up here too. The kids think that if they have a good grade, or a grade they are satisfied with, then they should not have to take the final. Some teachers feel this is an incentive to get kids to class. I don't agree. Nearly all my kids have good attendance rates. The kids think that if they have been tested over the material once, they should not have to do it again. I am not sure where that is coming from, but we are getting that a lot. I am going to fight it as much as I can. I am trying to prepare kids for college along with teaching them, and they need to understand this is the kind of thing they can expect to see in some college classes. >>> bcline@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 12/19/2005 2:31 PM >>> I give a 46 question multiple choice test in advanced Chem II, and in my Physics class. The Chem I final has more questions (not as much mathematical problem solving as the former two) and is also multiple choice. I have seen the same thing as Kelly. The students are doing very poorly on the finals. I just got the results tabulated from my 4th Hour Physics and the class average on the final was 69%. The class average for all the unit exams for this semester is an 84%. Why the huge fall off? The final, in many ways, is easier than any of the unit exams. I've seen similar outcomes in my Chemistry classes as well. I'm really not sure what to make of it, but it is frustrating. We have also has a huge number of students protesting that if they got a good grade for the semester thus far, they should get a exemption from the final exam. In other words they shouldn't have to retain any information for the semester nor should they have to review the material. I'm not sure where this idea got started in our school, but it has become a greater issue each year. The staff was surveyed and only a slight majority 54% wanted to make all students take finals. The slight minority wanted to do away with finals altogether or give the exemption for A students. I weigh the finals as 15%... maybe I need to make it worth more... how do others weigh the final? Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem. Bradley L Cline Chemistry I, Chemistry II, Physics Instructor Goddard High School 2500 S 199th St West PO Box 189 Goddard, KS 67052-0189 bcline@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -----Original Message----- From: kact-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:kact-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Deters, Kelly Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 11:01 AM To: KACT (E-mail) Subject: [KACT] Finals & Students I was just curious, what do others give as their "final"? I used to give 75 MC questions (the only time I do MC) and let them use a notecard. Now I give half that many questions and they use the front side of a piece of paper. I've found my students less and less able to perform well on finals, even though their performance and effort throughout the course hasn't had the same problem (especially the last two years when I redesigned my course--now their effort and interest is greater than in the past). I also used to give them 2-3 days in class to prepare for it, but over the years they did less preparing and more wasting time...now I just give 1 day and even that gets wasted! Anyone else have the same problem with finals? I know it's that time of year...but it seems to be getting worse over the years! :) Kelly detersk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx *************************************************** Replying to this email will send it to the entire group--use individual email addresses if you wish to direct a response to individual members. To post to the mailing list, send email to kact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, change your settings or to search the archives, visit //www.freelists.org/list/kact