As I sluggishly slumped in my seat a couple of weeks ago, my professor opened the lecture with a proposition. With a casual smile, he lobbed the question, “Raise your hand if you want to move the final exam.”
Considering the onslaught of assignments and projects I’d have to tackle, this was a no-brainer. I couldn’t — I needed the extra time to study. To my horror, the hands of my classmates shot in the air one by one, like traitorous white flags waving in slow motion.
While early exams might be intended to help students, they often do more harm than good by stacking stress and disrupting preparation. Professors should not reschedule final assessments before their official period.
“(Faculty) know students struggle because of the pressure that exists at college,” said Thea Woodruff, the Longhorn Wellness Center’s well-being and learning environments coordinator. “It’s just a matter of trying to help them (figure out their) options and … strategies (to help).”
UT purposefully designed finals week to distribute workloads and give students ample time to prepare. End-of-semester projects and assignments have their own space to be completed, followed by a short break to breathe, study and refocus before finals begin. Early exams pile deadlines, turning the final stretch into a mental minefield.
“You have to let one ball drop while you’re juggling something else,” public affairs graduate student Kenadi Maupin said. “For that time period, you’re not able to put your all into all facets of what you’re doing. … A trade-off on your full capacity can be hard because then it feels like everything’s happening at once, and you have to let some things go.”
This overload isn’t just a student complaint. The University has a policy reinforcing the importance of a designated exam period. According to UT, examinations should not be given before the official examination period without approval. Substantial examinations, or finals that account for over 30% of the course grade, may not be given during the last class week or study days before finals.
“Policies are designed to support the student experience,” said Molly Hatcher, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. “(This policy) is a great way to make (schedules) predictable and to honor and take advantage of that time to pour yourself into those final assessments.”
Some may argue that earlier examinations free up student schedules to relieve academic pileup. However, if multiple professors decide to hold finals early or other classes have projects due, the solution works counterproductively. Instead of freeing time, early exams front-load stress and create a sense of urgency for multiple classes.
“Will there be exceptions that are very warranted and might make sense for a course?” Hatcher said. “Perhaps, but we hope that our instructors are doing that with a lot of intentionality and relating it clearly to the learning outcomes and making sure students understand we’re mindful of student stress levels.”
At its root, courses should be designed to support the experiences of the students taking them. If professors deem it necessary to move examination dates, they should provide the flexibility for students to choose whichever time is more appropriate for them.
Final exams are hard enough without having to fight for the time we were promised to prepare for them. When professors push exams earlier, they disrupt a system designed to support students, not overwhelm them. At the very least, we should allow students to choose if they want the time to breathe, study and succeed.
Let’s keep finals where they belong. Final.
Lam is a computer science freshman from Mansfield, Texas.
