Increasingly professors are scheduling finals during the last week of classes instead of during finals week. In the end, this hurts the students more than it helps them.
Finals week is set aside for tests. It gives students time to study without worrying about other work. During the last week of classes students are completing projects and doing the last problem sets and papers for their classes. There is little time to study a semester’s worth of material while doing all this other stuff.
Additionally, finals week protects students by guaranteeing that they have at most two exams on the same day. There is no such guarantee during the last week of classes. In fact, almost every class that gives an exam during classes will give it on Thursday or Friday, the last two days of classes, making for a stressful two days for some students.
Testing during classtime is a mistake for another reason. Since the move to the 4 x 4 curriculum, courses are usually fairly compact as it is. When a class day is taken up by something that already has time set aside during finals week, it only compounds the problem.
Finals week is the time for final exams. Giving exams before that time is a disservice to the students. They are less prepared for the tests and more stressed out when they take them.
