Climactic Finals

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Climactic Finals
It is that time of season once again... Finals. I am always faced with this dilemma: Is it better to study for finals and take them? Or is it better to give finals and then grade them. Well, as a former student who loved being a student, I must say that taking a final is better than giving one.

In college, finals are the peak of any semester. All term long, you study, you learn. You prepare for a project, get ready for quizzes. You work hard on a paper and cram for the midterm. All this as you work towards finals. During finals week, you brew countless pots of coffee, burn the midnight oil AND the candle at both ends. You stress, you worry, you cram some more cursing at yourself for not having kept up during the semester. Then tense, wired, you sit for an exam. The questions are a blur, and yet your answers explode from your fingertips, all-knowing, confident. And in a couple of hours you are done. Good, bad or ugly, it doesn't matter. It is over, and the effect is orgasmic. I'm finished, you want to scream.

Sound like hell? Well, believe me--and I speak from experience--it is far better than the other side of finals.

I spend many hours creating an exam that students will finish in just a few. And that's not the worst of it. When a final exam ends, when students reach their semesters' climax, I am there to collect and evaluate what they have spewed out. This takes countless more hours, and it is not always a pretty site. It is, in a word, anti-climactic--or is that two words?

But I am not here to complain. I am here to grade, grade... and grade, trying my best to view each student's work in the best possible light, giving them the benefit of every doubt I may have. And when I am finished with one stack, I will move to the next and grade some more.

Ah, the life of a college professor. I wish I were my students...

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Comments (9)

i now understand all the torture i had put thru my profs heh..
- 5/11/2006 6:03 PM
- starberri92 (message)
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no you don't wanna be your students. i don't believe that statement at all
- 5/11/2006 9:15 PM
- PaikyPoo (message)
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being a student is nice and all...but it is hard work. Being a professor is no doubt far more difficult, but we work hard as students for a reason. And, I think (or, for the sake of my future, I hope) there are far greater rewards to teaching and research than there are to studying (as much as I love learning...how much better it must feel, to be the cause of learning)
- 5/11/2006 10:07 PM
- oriolis (message)
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man i love your blog, it's great to read about a professor's life. now i'm thinking about all the papers my professors have to grade too...
- 5/12/2006 12:12 AM
- Di_Gah_Jea (message)
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After reading this, I don't think I'll complain about my finals anymore. XD In other words, I have it good (while it lasts. : x)

Wow, I can't imagine how teachers do it and still maintain their sanity...
- 5/12/2006 1:19 AM
- onigiri (message)
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Eh. I don't have any finals, anymore. I just have projects.
- 5/12/2006 8:50 AM
- enygma81 (message)
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My dad is a prof but he teaches grad students and postgrads, so it is kind of diff for him. However, he did go through the period of time when he had to grade piles and piles of papers. It wasn't very fun at all.
- 5/12/2006 1:58 PM
- akittyamy (message)
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Having just come from a grueling final, I can't imagine that it would be easier to administer the final instead of taking it. Then again, I've never been a teacher so I wouldn't know!
- 5/12/2006 4:39 PM
- SammyStorm2 (message)
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So... one year in high school I decided all that "studying" was crap. You either know stuff or you don't. If you're paying attention during class, you shouldn't have to cram, right? I experimented. For one quarter, I did nothing that wasn't graded and I did no studying per se. I did do every assignment that was turned in and I did all the reading. Most of my grades stayed the exact same, with much less stress. Math went down. English went up. Do you really think studying is worthwhile? I mean do you retain it for any meaningful time after a test?
- 5/13/2006 12:08 AM
- ellen234 (message)
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