Finals

One things I love about BM and our finals system is the self scheduled exams. I'm not sure if many schools have this or if it is unique to the tri-co, but it is a system that I love. Instead of being told to go to a specific classroom at a specific time and then sitting down for three hours to complete the test, BM students are given more leeway by most of their professors. We have what are called self-schedualed exams. During the two week exam period, a student can choose when to go and take their exam as well as where they take them. All the exams are kept together and can be handed out at 3 times most days of this final period. The student picks up their final, goes to any one of the designated testing rooms on campus and takes their test. Our exams are proctored by fellow students not in the actual testing room. They sit outside and basically make sure that people are not talking and disrupting other test takers. There is a time limit on the finals, but it is up to you to keep track of your time and turn your final in when finished. Few finals are given in another manner, and those mostly lie in my department...Art History. Understandably, all students in an Art History class need to look at the same slide, for the same amount of time for the final to be fair. So these so called 'slide exams' are given at specific times in a specific classroom with a professor or TA coming into the room to change the slides. There is something so nice about being treated like responsible adults in this manner. Our honor code, a big deal on our campus, holds each student to the same criteria....that we not cheat, that we follow the instructions, and that we do so ourselves. Because of this honor code we are treated like adults and are allowed to act as such...something one rarely saw in high school and I believe something that is rarely seen on college campuses. It is a great feeling knowing that your professors trust you so completely that they do not need to monitor your tests. Of course with this freedom comes responsibility, but the responsibility should be there with or without the system. We are in fact all adults and any adult should have certain values and virtues they live up to...at least that's how we see it here.