i pulled my grade up from a mid c to high b once on a final.......i studied until about 2 in the morning then started drinking .....went to class at 7:30 with two keystones in a mcdonalds cup witha lid and straw and made an a on the test....the best all year.......man i did some stupid things my freshman year

 

I had a Calculus II final at 7:40 AM on Saturday! That was horrible. On top of everything you don't like about finals, you usually don't even have much time to prepare. I wish that test was this week or at least later in the day than 7:40.

 

Wow. That bites. I can't imagine having a final at 7:40 am on a saturday. That's recovery day for me.

 

...I think the THEORY closely follows something like this:

If an Prof passes you, especially with a decent grade (A), he is putting HIS reputation on the line with his colleagues and the school - if you walk into the next series in a course with an A and are incapable of more than remedial performance, you've just given the first Prof a real black eye...thus he has every right to put you through what may be a painful recap examination (Final Exam) to verify that you have learned and retained the relevant material.

The same goes for the college itself - if they give you a degree,, especially with Honors, and you step into the professional workforce incapable of doing anything but finding the coffee room, ogling the women, and surfing the internet - you've just bloodied up the reputation of your alma mater....

- and, YES! Partying in college is REQUISITE!

Fluids Labs, I remember them well .....

 

Personally, do you think I care about my alma matter or my prof? I'm paying to go to a college to get a degree. I could care less about how I make the school or the prof look. I'm paying them to teach me the skills needed to succeed in this world. Not to make them look like some saint. And it's not up to the prof about whether or not I succeed in the next class or this world. It's up to me. If I go into the next class with an A and end up failing miserably then it's not the prof's fault, it's mine. The prof did the best he could to teach me everything he knew and it was up to me to learn it. Like I said before, I don't give a rat's behind about my school or my prof's reputation. As long as I graduate with a degree with good grades and get a good job that can support my family then that's all that matters.

 

Wow! A rather forceful response...?
Noting personal, just providing a possible other-viewpoint interpretation....

- and you're correct, of course, your personal success depends on yourself, not the Prof's - ....THEIR perceived success, however, assuming they're not there just as Publishing Monkey's, depends directly on how well you do in later classes..their careers and "tenure" ride upon this, so they have some vested interest in your "success"....

 

I also hated finals, but they are still the best way to see if the party crowd has learned anything.

On a more serious note.......after hiring more the 30 professional engineers and supervisors, and going through literally hundreds of resumes, the first thing I would look at would be their transcript. Most of the time, you could see where they partied a lot or just couldn't adapt to being on their own for the first couple of years, but then settled down and studied the rest of the time.

Other things, besides grades, looked at was who showed Independence, who worked while going to school, who had scholarships, who had extra hours at graduation and who aligned their minor with their major. All of these things figured into the starting salary they would be offered.

No doubt, being part of the party crowd is more fun, but being part of the nerd crowd can land you a better, higher paying job. I didn't even consider ANYONE with less then a B average. Usually, there was enough A's to fill the available jobs.

Me, I was part of the party crowd and didn't see until later that you have to mix the two, with the grades taking priority.

 

What would you guys think about a course that only had one test all semester and it was the final?

 

If you ace it, it means you learned something.

 

if you don't take a final test to prove you know what you are supposed to have learned, what would be the point of going to school. everyone could just buy a degree on the net. if you can't pass the test you do not know what is needed to EARN your degree.

 

Sorry it came off as harsh. It wasn't intended to be. Dang ol' internet doesn't convey emotion real well.

gunracer1, I believe that there has to be a better way to measure how much you've learned during the course than trying to cram it all on a 50 question test at the end of the semester.

 

As much as I hate them, I agree with Gunracer. I wouldn't want to ride in an airplane with a pilot that just tried hard but couldn't pass his flight test. I wouldn't want to drive on the bridge that was built by the civil engineer who just tried hard in school but failed his statics final. Bottom line is trying is one thing, performing is another... with that said I just got back from my Circuits final, and unless he curves the daylights out of that test I'll be taking it again in the spring I didn't understand the material as well as I should have, and it shows on my final.... Oh well, I get to look forward to Physics on Wednesday now

 

If the test is comprehensive and covers all aspects of the course, it will tell you, the prof and any potential employers, that you understand what you were supposed to have learned. That is.......if you pass it.

 

Gotta love finals week, you can smell the fear and the fried brain matter. I had a Business Law test Sat. (still no results) I have a Business Statistics test at 4:00 today and 3 more after that.

 

I always hated finals too, but their intent is to make sure that you have retained in your noggin the things that the professor wanted you to learn.