I wish more professors would learn from my International Business professor and make their finals short but challenging. We’re watching The Social Network and answering five short (150 word) questions. They are by no means easy questions, and points will be awarded not for “right” answers but for well-thought out and persuasive answers.

With my “typical” finals based on rote memorization and regurgitating information, I’m going to forget 90%+ of what I learned within a week. But, for the first time in my education, I am learning while taking a final. I’m also much more motivated to give my best efforts because of how interesting and relevant our final is to modern business.

If professors just want to build reputations for giving out ridiculously hard finals and take pride in seeing us pull our hair out at tough questions, then keep things the way they are. If professors want us to learn, they should reconsider their methods and experiment with finals designed to teach us knowledge we will carry with us beyond the quarter.