Finals are approaching at a worrying rate, with some students already facing the imminent doom of finals testing one week early. In a few classes, some students are lucky enough to have teachers forgo a final altogether. But for those who have to endure the stress and pain, there is a very clear divide among those who would prefer an oral final, a written or online multiple choice test, or an essay. Personally, I feel the jury is out on this debate as most students are on one side or mixed, depending on the class. This isn’t terribly surprising because students learn differently depending on the subject, teachers, and classroom environment.

For certain classes, there is a clear and obvious reason for what type of final students will be taking and why. Two such classes are Spanish and French. In language classes, teachers must gauge how well their students are comprehending the material they are learning and how effective those materials will be in the real world and in everyday life.

Spanish, for one, has several dialects, and all of our Spanish teachers have a different set of quirks to their dialects that students can pick out. An example of this is actually a joke that Senora Vital would always tell her class about the differences in word meanings in different countries. Senora Vital is originally from Argentina, so when students who spoke the Californian/Mexican dialect of Spanish would tell her that they would “lavar los trastes,” she would always giggle because that same word meant something a little dirtier in Argentina. So, she always taught us to use “platos” instead, but to keep in mind that different dialects speak different ways. In this regard, having a speaking final is the most reasonable course of action, especially since all Spanish classes leading up to finals continuously practice escuchar (listening) activities.

But some students would prefer a speaking final or a presentation in most, if not all, of their classes. One such student is Leah Martinez, an avid choral student and drama club member. She reasons that she would rather have a spoken final because “presentations usually last around 3 minutes, so there’s less worry” and  “spoken finals seem easier to get an A on because all you have to do is be loud and confident about your topic.”

While most people would agree with that sentiment, those who struggle with anxiety dread having the teacher ask for them to speak up and see spoken finals like these as death sentences. Anxiety and students’ personalities therefore also play a role in what they prefer. Martinez, who is used to singing in front of a crowd of people, and other students used to performing (athletics, theatre) are less fazed by oral projects, but this isn’t the case for a lot of students.

Victoria Edwards, a junior currently taking several AP classes, put in her two cents on the subject: “I guess preference-wise, [I would choose] online or written finals just because it’s easier for me to study and prepare for [when] compared to a presentation. But a presentation would be more beneficial to a person because it improves confidence and speaking abilities. Even though I do enjoy group work, my personal preference is some form of written assignments because it is easier for me to think in such a way.”

Victoria brought up a recurring point for those who would rather take a written exam – the dread of group work. Though that was her pro for oral presentations, most students who prefer written exams also abhor group work.

In the end, the main point to take away from this is that different people yearn for a different type of assessment. Some find it hard to answer questions on the spot or think quickly while some people thrive with a fast-paced examination. Some people have such a short attention span that exams with more than ten questions cause them to immediately zone out. No matter the type of test this semester’s finals may turn out to be, they are – in the end – still finals, which means that they will be hated and dreaded no matter how preferable they are to a certain percentage of the student population.