Comment by vasco
9 hours ago
> let classes that normally count for a grade just submit grades as pass-fail. Because what else can you do?
Schedule a single exam and that's your grade for that subject? That's how it should work anyway, credits for work during semester (or worse attendance) are not needed to evaluate if someone learned the material, give them an exam and done.
That's just bad outdated practice. It leads to cramming and less remembering than of the demand is for students to do work and show learning and effort throughout the year.
Most courses I've taken have obligatory assignments that are pass/fail, and you have to pass a certain amount during the semester to take the final exam. But the grade is determined entirely of the final exam.
Which to me seems the best way, you still have to learn throughout the year. Especially to avoid cheating this works nice. And as an aside, most people I know that did a year abroad in the US got 1-2 grades higher, as it was quite easy to just farm extra credits.
It has been my observation that most of the better students were the ones who would not put in work during the semester/year and cram at the end.
That's maybe something a school can do if exams are next week, or after.
At my school, tomorrow is the last day of exams. Most of the students have left campus. There's no time or mechanism to schedule an(other) exam.
Then you're testing how good someone is at exams as much as anything
Exams have performance variance. Otherwise you're only getting a pass/fall signal in any case.
Exams are the only fair way to evaluate if someone knows something (written or oral, in person). Take homes and attendance are just window dressing.