I go to university at Albany and I was very surprised to know that my math department requires to take a calculus 2 departmental final. They only do it for calculus 1 and 2. Starting with calc 3 professor can make their own final. My question is are departmental finals a future in the pre med courses?
I think that depends on the college.
It is not at all unusual to have departmental finals for basic subjects that are taught in a number of different sections. The extent to which you will have departmental finals will vary from college to college.
This is not uncommon at all. Many colleges that have multiple sections of an intro course have a common final. Intro calculus and econ are very common examples. At my college, some foreign language departments also have a common final.
Whether your future classes will have them, it all depends upon the college and the individual department.
So back to your question as to whether they should, well, it is what it is, but yes, I think that at least helps to make grading more equitable across multiple sections.
This isn’t the future at all. I had classes like this in 2005.
@iwannabe_Brown I think the OP meant should he/she expect more departmental finals in the future if he/she is premed. And there is no one answer to fit every schools.
FWIW I had some departmental finals in the late 70’s!
Common exams are more common in large introductory courses.