To all of the current college kids and college grads: Do you like taking finals? Do you prefer papers to finals? I had my 2 yesterday from 8-10 AM and 10:30-12:30 AM. I'm very happy that they're now behind me. I would much rather write papers.
My finals are generally projects that last from 5-11 weeks depending on the class. They're fun. Sometimes they're not. The downside to that though, is that you can always resubmit after you turn it in at the end. Soooo that's where I am right now.
I prefer take home finals - which, for the most part, is what I have. Also, grading finals is surprisingly fun - because of the way they're structured in my math department, a few grad students and a postdoc or two all get to sit around a table, shooting the ****, scouring the undergrads' papers with red ink.
I used to like take home finals until I took General Relativity. Damn thing took over 30 hours to do.
Hell to the no. I'm like Ramza, I like writing a final essay over the course of at least a week and then handing that in, rather than taking an in-class exam. I do like semester-long projects, too, since that's mostly what I've done in my core courses. And I wonder, Ramza, do you prefer to grade multiple choice or open answer questions? I have a professor who immensely prefers one over the other, because of the ease at which he can grade. Of course, math's a bit different than reading/writing courses.
I usually write papers since I'm an English major and History and Writing minor. It's great because I usually get these kinds of things done wayyy before Finals Week. I had to take Econ though to get my Social Science requirement out of the way, and it was the only class that worked with my schedule. Ughhh. It's over though thankfully. I like Finals Week in general because I try to stay as long as possible, and so many people leave early after their finals.
Are you kidding? My school's finals week started yesterday. I came home last Thursday. No way I'm gonna stick around any longer than I have to.
Well, I don't think anyone who's graded anything would disagree with me when I say multiple choice is much, much faster to grade. But, in a situation like the one I described, where one person ends up grading one short answer problem, I kind of like the short answers - you get a good, consistent rhythm, it gives you the opportunity to find out who the hardass is (It was me by a country mile), and you're less likely to lose track of where you are on the massive, differentiated by four test versions list of multiple choice options. That said, I got essay grading experience back in high school (I was an English TA, of all things) and it's miserable. I can't fault professors for not having final papers. I just can't. Sounds like my number theory final. I hope you at least enjoyed some of the problems.
I can do either absolutely nothing here or at home. I live about three hours away as well, so I have to always bum a ride with someone. Plus most of my friends are still up here. I dunno I guess I just want the full college experience or something along those lines.
See Ramza, one of my english professors is so experienced that he's outlined the bull poop (he actually says the more common word) rule to us, wherein he'll give 0 points for an answer that appears to be rambling and trying to make it seem like there's substance when there really isn't. That's why he prefers multiple choice, where he can fly through an exam and not have to make those difficult judgement calls. And Internets, I have more friends at home than at school. At home I don't have to pay for my meals, barely ever have to cook them myself, and can escape the city life except when I want to. School in NY is fun, but my home is under an hour away from another major city, so I can go there whenever I want to city it up, so to say.
I was a History major and once I stopped taking GE classes I never had another final my entire college career they were always papers and they were glorious. We knew about them weeks or months in advance so it was easy as pie for me to get them done ahead of time. Cramming? This word had no meaning to me.
Yeah I'm assuming next semester I won't have any exam finals since all of my classes are 300 level English courses. Still will require lots of deep-thinking and analyzing with many papers written. I'm all for it though.
One of my finals was the worst thing ever. The other class, my 'final' was a project that was 50% of my grade. Coding a stellar model. Felt awesome when I completed it and had it working right. Given a mass, it takes several minutes to figure out the best fit for central temperature and pressure, as well as radius and luminosity. Python is like cheating when it comes to coding. At least you weren't traveling faster, or you wouldn't have had enough time.