Most would agree that 120 minutes is not a lot of time, especially when compared to the approximate 8,100 (The amount of minutes spent in one class per year, not including Flex)  that students spend each school year in one class. In 120 minutes, one could watch two episodes of 60 minutes or drive to Baltimore and back. For this reason, it is not fair to students that they have 120 minutes to complete a final test. Especially because this is something that accounts for 20 percent of their final grades, to measure what they have learned in a class.

In fact, AHS possesses a policy that reflects this problem. “Teachers have the flexibility of either administering a final exam or a culminating activity. However, the decision to choose one or the other should be communicated from teachers to students and parents early in the school year,” Principal John Ponton said.

Clearly, most teachers choose not to take advantage of this policy. The reason most likely being that teachers have a short window of time to grade final assessments and turn grades into the office. However, assigning a “culminating activity” means that teachers have the opportunity to create a due date that would accommodate the time needed to grade such projects.

“I think that teachers should assign a creative take-home project, because we would be more able to use all of our knowledge from the year to be completed in a creative way,” sophomore Christina Uglietta said. “This would show that we paid attention. However, taking one test that is assessing our knowledge from the whole year is not fair, and puts way too much pressure on the students.”

This alternative seems to be receiving some popularity at AHS. In fact, some classes already assign creative projects that carry the same weight as a final test. An example of this is Human Anatomy where students must create a picture book. Such an assignment such as this allows for the student to whom it is assigned to truly apply the knowledge they gained during the year. Distributing and administering a standardized test is simply not the most optimum manner for assessing a student’s knowledge.

Another class where students can participate in a “culminating activity” instead of taking a standardized test and receive a grade for their “final test” is Mary Richardson’s IB Topics class. “We were given two days in class to research a historical figure to be represented at a dinner party. I like this manner of testing because it is not as stressful, and becase we have been tested throughout the year on material we learned,” senior James Grandchamp said.

It seems that assigning a “culminating activity” instead of a final test is a less-stressful option for students, and a more effective manner to assess a student’s knowledge that was gained during the school year.