| Show Final Fina exam xam week maybe maybe may maybe be more more crowded Kristy Kuhn Contributing Writer Final exam week is fast approaching but many students will be long gone before it even begins unless begins unless a wrench is thrown into the plan Consider the wrench thrown On Nov 17 a notice went out outto outto outto to all faculty reminding them to offer some significant evaluation or learning activity during the classes' classes scheduled final period As a result faculty that might have planned to end classes prior to final exam week will have to re-evaluate re and hold some type of activity final exam or otherwise during the scheduled testing time Students meanwhile will willbe willbe willbe be forced to make the necessary adjustments to holiday travel or oth other r plans This office has reinforced with all faculty that they are expected to have a significant learning experience with their classrooms during the final exam period said division chair Barbara That came from the instructional Vice Vicc President that we are expected to be in class the week of finals The impetus for the reminder stems from complaints that that ultimately begin with students in a a 1 scenario that may sound familiar I Near the end of the semester an instructor di discusses cusses plans to follow the schedule and hold a final during the given exam time At that point one or more of the students start protesting insisting that their other teachers are not making them come back to school during final exam xam week Usually the complaints about final exam periods are from students who have scheduled a vacation or other activity so they dont don't want to take a final exam said Shirene Bell communication instructor The scheduling of final exam week itself may be part of the problem Exam week is set apart from nonn normal l coursework It has its own week its own days and that no longer resemble a students student's normal class schedule This semester for example Dec 4 is the last day of cl class ss There are no classes scheduled on Fr Friday day Dec 5 because it is a reading day a day f for r students and faculty to meet and address questions Since final exams are arc held the week of Dec 8 11 it is possible for a student to have nearly a week off between the last day of class and the final exam For many Finals Week Continued on AS Finals week Continued from A AI 1 this lends to the feeling that the semester is over on the thelast thelast thelast last day of class and some students feeling put out by having to return for finals week Its hard for me to plan on finals that start at different times than class said student Taryn Koehler I work and I have a routine and then finals come al along ng and its it's all different Robert Velasquez director of scheduling at for over six years addressed the need for a separate final exam week and the unusual start times Its the practice of the college and most other institutions to have finals last two clock hours said Velasquez That forces us to stagger start times which is why finals finals' dont don't take place on the last day of class In fact other local Utah colleges do follow a final exam schedule similar to that of The University of Utah and Utah Valley University both schedule final exams in two-hour two blocks during a separate week Those colleges however are holding this semesters semester's final exams during the week of Dec 18 15 one week later than because they started the semester a week later Given that other local colleges handle exam week in the same way as and final exams are not likely to go away soon it may be necessary for students to rethink their definition of when the semester ends While that puts everything out another week it could be worse worse worse- could have finals a week later like the other colleges |
