It is that time of the year when the grade 10 and the DP students take their end of year or end of phase final examinations. The purpose of the examinations is to make a final review of the topics/units covered and assess the level, against a benchmark, of each student’s knowledge and understanding of the subject. A final is technically just a greater form of a “unit/topic test”, they have the same purpose, finals are simply larger, assessment of learning, a snapshot of the learning to date. Summative assessment usually involves students receiving a grade that indicates their level of performance on that day at that time. Summative assessments are often high stakes as they lead to other avenues of study and jobs, which means that they have a high value in the big scheme of things but are not necessarily an indicator of overall performance. They are the tool that industry, academia and schools use so just follow the advice in the picture.
