Finals week is looming and that means students are either prepared or frantically doing last minute assignments.
Several Bakersfield College students gave opinions on whether or not finals are necessary, and offered some tips on how to prepare for them. Finals start on Dec. 7 for students with Saturday classes and on Dec. 9 for all classes.
Student Elizabeth Navarro says she thinks finals should not be given. “I don’t think one test should indicate whether you pass a class or not,” she said.
Navarro also mentioned that finals might add extra stress to teachers because of the amount of material they have to review and the fact that they have to grade hundreds of exams. “If you do well over course of the semester, then why do you need to prove yourself one more time,” she said.
Even though she thinks students shouldn’t be given finals, she says she prepares for them by looking at notes and study guides that are given to her.
BC student Anthony Rodriguez disagrees, and thinks that finals are necessary.
“They’re good because you get to review a whole semester’s worth of work,” he said.
Rodriguez says he likes to prepare for finals by listening to all his lectures that he has recorded. “It helps me remember key things that are important,” he said.
“If you actually want to pass the class, you should want to take the final, because it will make you succeed in the class,” said BC student Breanna Guzman.
In order to prepare for finals, Guzman says she likes to use handouts and past assignments her teachers have given her.
Priscilla Garcia says the way she gets ready for finals is to just study what the study guide says to. “I don’t like to waste more time than I have to, I just study what I need to. I read over class notes and sections that are emphasized more,” she said.
“Finals are necessary to improving a grade, but I don’t think it helps when we already have an A or a B in the class,” she said.
Garcia explained that if the student is doing well in the class, and on the day of the final they don’t do well, then the overall grade is lowered. She said the final should not represent the student’s knowledge of the material.
BC student Abriel Lopez explained his method for preparing for finals: “I wait until I get the study guide, do it, then wait until the night before to look through it.”
“If you don’t do your work during the year but do good on the final, you still proved you learned something,” he said. Lopez thinks finals are a good way to show the teacher that you retained valuable information.
Claudia Yanez, a BC student, prepares for finals by re-writing the notes she’s taken. “It does work, it helps me memorize the important things,” she said.
“Finals should be taken depending on the students grade. If you have a C or D then take it, but if you have an A or B then no,” she said.
Navarro summed up her feelings about finals by saying: “We don’t like them, but what are you going to do? You got to take them.”