Finals season: the time of year where students lock themselves in the library, living off of nothing but cheap pizza, Red Bull and about four hours of sleep. The stereotypical image of a student with sagging eye bags and unkempt hair, wearing sweatpants that haven’t been washed in days often comes to mind.

For high school and college students, finals are an almost universal struggle. These exams are no one’s favorite part of college, but ultimately teach valuable life skills such as time management, organization and memorization. However, these exams often lead to extremely stressful periods for students who cram several course loads of information in a small amount of time. This begs the question: how effective are finals in testing students’ comprehension of course material?

Retaining information seems to be the biggest issue. According to cognitive scientists Daniel Willingham and Robert Bjork, “two weeks after students had taken their final exam … they did not remember more than 90% of the information.”

Because many exams test through the answer recall method rather than testing comprehension of material, students often completely forget most of the information from these classes. This can negatively affect a student’s motivation for actually trying to learn a subject —  just memorizing and cramming information knowing they will most likely end up forgetting it after finals are over. 

Finals also aren’t a “one-size fits all” method of examination. According to the American Test Anxieties Association, “students with this testing anxiety score about 12 percentile points below those who have low anxiety, which translates to about half a letter grade below.” Final grades may not accurately portray a student’s understanding of the knowledge if they struggle with the format of exams. Tests may fail to show other methods of learning comprehension such as visualization, making inferences and predictions, which may not fit into the standard structure of traditional exams. 

There is also the issue of personal health during exams. Because of the aggressive workload for students, students often neglect their physical and mental health and well-being. Students may skip showers, meals and mental breaks because of the pressure. 

Sleep habits during finals is a major issue, which can severely affect performance on these exams. The average college student only sleeps 6.36 hours per night, and this sleep deprivation worsens cognitive performance and mood. 

Is there a solution to final exams? Unfortunately, final exams are an important, traditional aspect of our education system that is definitely not going away anytime soon. But with the increase of mental health awareness in American school systems, universities are creating more accommodations to help students who struggle with test taking, such as extra time, separate spaces and breaks. 

There are ways to retain final exams while also maintaining the well-being of students. If colleges spaced out exams, even for an extra week, or tried to create a more flexible block schedule to avoid multiple exams on the same day, it would likely make a huge difference for students. 

With extra time in between exams, students can focus more on taking care of their well-being, participating in healthier study habits to be the best test takers they can be. Finals don’t have to be the dreaded part of every student’s college experience if schools don’t make them that way.