Finals are one of the most stressful times of the year for Loomis Chaffee students. Pelicans undertake final exams three times each year, once at the end of each term, which amounts to eleven times over their time at Loomis. Finals often come in the form of cumulative tests or long and quantitative unit exams, requiring students to begin preparing weeks in advance. While the goal of finals is to evaluate students’ understanding and retention of material, important questions and concerns arise: Are these tests truly measuring knowledge and comprehension? Or are they just measurements of one’s short-term cramming ability? And is the stress they cause truly worth it?
Having recently come out of the COVID years, a time of constant change, many students have begun questioning traditional exams and have suggested replacing finals with projects instead. They argue that projects would allow students to demonstrate their learning in more meaningful, long-term ways and eliminate additional stress.
“Students could engage in deeper research, creative presentations, or practical applications of what they’ve learned,” Lizzie Orszulak ’27 said regarding final projects. “Such an approach would not only reflect a student’s grasp of course content but also build skills in long-term retention of classwork, contribute to deeper understanding, and significantly enhance students’ overall educational experience.”
Projects also ease the stress that comes from packing multiple tests into just a few days. Specifically, managing five or six exams in such a short time quickly becomes overwhelming for students, especially those involved in sports and extracurricular activities.
“The last few weeks of the term are [also] when championships for varsity sports take place, so for athletes, having six tests plus a big game can be unmanageable,” said Orszulak. With final projects, the pressure can be more evenly distributed over time, allowing students to put forth their best work without compromising their mental state or sacrificing time from other activities.
However, not everyone agrees that projects are the way to go. Some students and faculty have noted that exams offer many benefits that projects cannot. They test a student’s ability to recall and apply information under pressure, which are skills that are often necessary in real-world settings. Also, they help teachers gauge their classes’ performance at the end of the term and identify areas of improvement going forward.
Thus, as both tests and projects have their benefits and disadvantages, the best possible solution would be to require a mix of both, resulting in some classes having finals and the rest having projects—which, in essence, is similar to the system that Loomis uses today. In this way, students would be able to be less stressed while also testing their abilities to apply information under time pressure and to retain material.
