So, you need to write a chemistry final exam. Maybe this is your first time, maybe it’s not… but it’s been a while. I haven’t given a spring final exam since 2019. It’s a bit daunting to be giving a final exam again, but it’s also a little bit freeing. I don’t have to do what I did three years ago. I can do whatever I (and my PLC) want. So… where do I start?

Let’s think about how our other chemistry assessments have gone this year. Do your kiddos ever say: “When did we even learn that?” It can be so disheartening to hear your students complain about an unfair test or quiz when you spent such a long time preparing both them and it. And boy, do you not want to spend even more time putting together your chemistry final exam just to hear, “we didn’t learn this stuff!”

Your Final Exam Options

Traditional final exams are easy to grade. They are both dreaded and expected. If you are really good at writing multiple-choice questions, they can be great assessments. Where’s the issue? Well, traditional multiple-choice finals rarely hit DOK 2 or 3. They can also be extremely stressful for students because it’s a “one and done.” If students don’t perform well on standardized tests, they have no other way to show you what they’ve learned. 

Alternative task-based assessments offer the opportunity to assess your students’ skills rather than their ability to memorize or calculate quantities. You could give students a week-long project and only grade their final presentation. Students could create a portfolio showcasing what they learned throughout the year (this is what my cooperating teacher had her students complete). You could also have students change a variable from one of the labs they performed during the year and then write a lab report. I recently read a blog post where a teacher gave her students a chemistry escape room final exam the other day. So cool!

So, as I see it, here are the three basic pathways for developing a final exam:

TRADITIONAL

Give a final exam using previous quiz/test questions. It may have been your wording that tripped kids up before. Reword questions as necessary.

TASK-BASED

Switch things up by giving a completely different type of exam! It could be fun! But I caution you to do a practice exam or “dry run” so your students aren’t so stressed out that they complain to everyone, and you end up with a visit from admin.

BLENDED 

Give a blended exam. Have students complete a shorter traditional final exam to assess their basic content knowledge. Then give them some sort of performance task to assess their skills!

Five things to consider when writing a final exam

Once you’ve decided which type of exam you want to give, you have several other things to consider.

What were your goals this year?

• Lab skills? Consider lab-based questions or even a lab practical. 
• Vocabulary? Typical multiple-choice and/or matching questions are great for assessing basic vocabulary retention. They’ve learned a lot over the course of the semester, and chemistry terminology is important. Including straightforward vocabulary on your final will 1) show you what terms they remember and 2) probably calm your students’ nerves. They know how to review for vocabulary tests already. I like including vocabulary in my online assessments. I can randomize it so that each student has their own unique chemistry vocabulary section. 
• Application? If you really hit applications hard this year, I would suggest including real-world scenarios or some sort of project. Give your students access to their resources and allow them to really dive into a problem and try to solve it with all of their skills!
• Literacy? Have them analyze an article from Science Daily or some other kid-friendly journal. Students could do something as simple as completing a CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) form or as complicated as creating an infographic. They could then research the background knowledge cited in the article and ask questions for further study. 
• SAT Prep? My school is pushing this one hard. We’ve had at least one SAT-style question on each quiz, so we included some SAT-style questions on our chemistry final exam. They are multiple-choice questions that are worded similarly to what they’ll see on the SAT.

What format are you thinking about using for the final exam?

My students take all of their quizzes in Schoology, and they will do the same for their final exam. I make a paper copy of each quiz in case the internet goes down (which happens every now and then), so I also have a hard copy of the final, just in case. My students are familiar with how I physically format questions in Schoology and the hard copies. I use the same fonts every time. I use the same number of styles. I know they seem like little details, but these little details can put your students at ease. 

I would NOT RECOMMEND trying out a new program for your final exam if your students haven’t been exposed to it before exam day. Yes, we may logically understand that a final in google forms should be no different than a final exam given in Schoology (or CANVAS, Blackboard, etc.), but your students will use any excuse to complain. Don’t let the formatting be the reason a student thinks they failed. 

How much time did you spend on each topic during the year?

If you spend 5 weeks on stoichiometry and only 1 on states of matter, you should probably have more stoichiometry questions than states of matter on your final exam. Well, maybe not more, but they should be spending more time on stoichiometry problems (which will take longer due to all the mathing they have to do). Really, I just mean that your students should not be spending 15 minutes completing a states of matter task and only 3 on the stoichiometry task when that doesn’t really match the time you’ve spent in class on those topics.

How long do I have to grade this final exam?

I have two afternoons, a full teacher day, the weekend, and then technically, the following Monday and Tuesday. That’s a lot of time to grade 150 exams. However, I prefer to have my exams graded by Friday at 3 pm. This time constraint limits the number of short answer questions (or projects) that I want to grade by hand vs MC that will be put on a scantron or online exam. Also… I have meetings on Friday morning to prep for the next school year. And I have to get my room “summer ready.” So I really don’t have as much time as I thought. 

I’m a pretty fast grader, but no one really wants to grade final exams. We ALL just want to get out of there! I definitely don’t want to discourage you from trying out a project or a lab-based final exam; just design it to ensure easy grading for yourself.  

Lastly…should my students have access to their resources during their final exam?

We teach a ton of content in chemistry. Sometimes I think too much. I would love to alleviate some of that stress by giving them access to their notes and making them USE THEIR SKILLS. Obviously, if your final exam is all vocabulary matching… don’t let them use their notes. That’s just ridiculous. BUT, if your students are synthesizing knowledge, why not? I WISH I could give a skills-based chemistry final exam where students can use their resources from the year. I’m going to push for this type of assessment next year. Performance-based assessments are about memorizing facts; it’s about using those facts to solve some sort of problem or show off a skill.

Study Guides as a Resource

Another option if you’d like to give your students access to resources but are planning on giving a traditional multiple-choice style final exam is to allow your students to compare their exam to their study guide (or notes) for the last 15-20 minutes of the exam. I stole this idea from my cooperating teacher. Most of my students completed their study guide. Those who did not really struggle on the final while those who completed it did not need it. But knowing they’d get to double-check their work relieved some anxiety. 

This past fall, I only gave a curve to those students whole completed the chemistry final exam study guide. This was a decision that the chemistry department had to agree on. In the fall, we had a couple of questions that didn’t grade properly online, so we gave every student a curve to account for the issue with the program. Then, the student who completed the study guide got an additional curve. It would encourage students to complete the study guide and reward kids for preparing for their final. I think I would prefer to go back to giving students access to their study guide for 15-20 minutes. No real reason other than it feels fairer to me. Is it? Probably not. 

That Trusty Notecard Method

Many teachers allow their students to bring in a notecard full of notes. I’ve never done this, so I don’t have any advice about it. If you want to do this, go for it! Just… specify the size of the notecard. You’ve seen that meme, right?

Welp, I hope that answered some of your questions about writing a great chemistry final exam. I don’t have all of the answers, but I definitely have some ideas. What are your thoughts? Should we still be giving traditional final exams at all? Sound off in the comments?

Further Reading

Interested in more thoughts about chemistry final exams? Check out these articles!

Lab Practicals, Final Exams and a Silver Lining to a Tough Year

Escape the Study Guide: Gamifying the Review Process

Managing Final Exam Week – Before, During, and After the Test