What many students consider to be the most frightening aspect of college courses—cumulative final exams—may be vanishing at many of the nation’s universities.
A recent article by The Boston Globe titled “The Test Has Been Canceled” cited anecdotal and statistical evidence supporting the idea that fewer college courses are administering cumulative finals. At Harvard University, just 23 percent of the school’s 1,137 undergraduate courses scheduled final exams last semester—the lowest rate since 2002.
Exams are often being replaced by take-home essays and group projects, according to the article. It is a break from tradition dating from the 1830s and a challenge to the notion that final exams are the best method of encouraging and evaluating college-level work.
Duke does not keep statistics on the number of courses that give final exams, but every class is assigned a time for a final, said University Registrar Bruce Cunningham.
Lee Baker, associate vice provost for undergraduate education, noted that there are many viable alternatives to traditional final exams, adding that his class this semester does not have a final test. Instead, his course will have three non-cumulative exams over the course of the semester.
“If Duke is giving less finals, I am confident that professors are finding better ways for students to learn, communicate, think and write,” he said.
Partially as a result of his own memories as a student, Orin Starn, professor of cultural anthropology, will also not administer a final this semester. There are better methods of assessment than cumulative exams, he said.
“We have three tests, each covering material from one-third of the class,” Starn said. “My own memories of finals as a student was cramming like crazy for them and then pretty much forgetting everything by the start of the next term.”
Starn also said that his impression was that finals seem to be less frequently administered in the more humanistic departments than in the physical sciences or engineering.
Many Duke students have noticed differences in the number of finals in the University’s departments. Sophomore Zach Epstein said he normally takes math and science courses that often have finals. He has added that it seems like humanities classes frequently have essays and projects in the place of exams. Sophomore Willie Zhang, a math and biophysics double major, said he has had finals in about 80 percent of his classes, most of which were cumulative.
But other students, such as Jose Lamazares, a sophomore Japanese major, have had few finals in their Duke courses.
“This year I’m going to have final exams in all my classes, but last year I had finals in only one or two of my classes,” he said. “The rest were all essays or group projects.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Starn said finals seem to be administered more frequently in humanistic departments than physical sciences.
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