Editorial: Finals times better this semester

As we approach the end of the semester one of the major issues in every student’s mind is finals.

For some the final exam is judgment day, the exam that determines whether the student will get an A or regret ever setting foot into the class or taking the class with a certain professor.

It is not uncommon to hear students who failed a class say the professor gave them the failing grade and the ones who pass the class saying they earned their grades.

But there are times when the university can aid in student’s failure by setting the final exam at an awkward time of the day that makes you want to ask, “What were they thinking?”

Passing exams just like anything else requires a comfortable environment, similar to what the student has encountered throughout the semester. But that was not the case last semester and this semester.

Some students who attended classes at 8 a.m. were forced to reset their biological clocks and come in for a final exam at about 6 a.m.

Accounting majors Steve Gullekson and Sophia Kavalos, who took a business math class exam at 6:30 a.m., said the arrangement inconvenienced them.

Gullekson said in fall 2004 he was forced to take an exam at 6:30 a.m. for a class that met at 8 a.m. during the semester.

“It was hard for me,” Gullekson said. “It’s kind of hard for me to wake up as it is.”

Gullekson suggested that the university should make 8 a.m. the earliest time for taking a final exam.

Kavalos, a senior, said the 30-minute change for the class that usually met at 7 a.m. was tough for students to adjust to that the professor allowed them to take the exam at the usual time.

“I would have preferred for them to keep the finals at 7 a.m.,” Kavalos said.

Such an arrangement is hard for both students and professors and creates a perfect reason for students to feel cheated in case they don’t perform well on the exam.

The students found nothing fun in having to wake up in the wee hours of the day to sit through the most important exam of the semester.

They complained to their professors who passed the complaints to university officials.

Dennis Nef, University Associate Vice President and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, whose office is in charge of planning the final exam schedule, said his office decided to streamline the schedule after receiving complaints from professors.

“This is one area where we heard the complaints from students loud and clear and we have been able to accommodate that,” Nef said.

The review of spring 2005 semester’s final exam schedule means this semester most students are going to take their final exams almost at the same time they attended the class during the semester.

But there are some classes that would still take their exams at about 6 a.m. Nef said students taking exams at those times are registered in classes that prefer to meet early in the morning.

Examples of such classes are Kinesiology and ROTC classes where students engage in physical exercises such as jogging.

There are some incidents where students and the university administration don’t seem to be communicating on the same wavelength, but in this case the university seems to have responded accordingly to the needs of students.

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