Entering December, students are faced with finals, which many teachers present in the form of a cumulative test. However, testing cumulatively for multiple classes becomes a struggle for students with test anxiety and doesn’t require students to apply their knowledge to something bigger.
I believe that is why projects are a superior form of finals and should be implemented more in schools.
In a November poll conducted by The Bell, 79% of students voted on projects being the preferred final.
When test day comes around, students may experience anxiety, or could be having a bad day, resulting in inaccurate scores. One day determines their understanding of weeks of learning; a project is a process that a student builds upon.
“I get really bad test anxiety. I understand the need for testing over projects, but I feel more connected to the topic when I don’t feel pressured to do my best in a limited amount of time,” junior Madelynn Heits said.
In contrast to tests, projects give students a chance to use what they learned in class, rather than just stating it.
“Projects are a way for students to add their personal creativity and flourish to their learning, giving them more autonomy, which causes them to be more invested in the material,” senior Olivia Messina said.
However, some say projects are unfair, since students will often be executing the project differently from one another, while tests are the same for every student.
According to the National Library of Medicine, “Tests are effective in evaluating a student’s depth of knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, as students must recall and apply information without external aids.”
This may be true for regular exams throughout the year; however, as far as finals go, students are expected to perform well on tests for all seven classes, all in the same week. For finals, contributing to a project is a slower, more manageable way to demonstrate learning.
“Tests are an unsustainable cycle of short-term memorization, regurgitation, and forgetting to store new knowledge,” Messina said.
If you are interested in being tested solely through projects the EDGE microschool is centered around project-based learning. To learn more, visit The View or consider joining EGDE next school year.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12461055/
