Seeing Red

In my department, final exams are supposed to be a major part of the final grade. I just finished looking at the geometry final I am supposed to give on Wednesday and feel sick. This exam covers lots of the material I taught from September to January and touches on the stuff covered from February through June. The algebra final I was handed had the same problems.

I know the kids have to take a regents that covers the entire year, but shouldn't the final reflect the work we have finished this semester, especially since that is what their grade should be reflect?

(Before anyone bitches about why I didn't make up the exams, I'll explain here. I offered to write the first part of the geometry final. In fact, I wrote the first part of the exam which was dismissed as being no good without anyone bothering to tell me what they didn't like about it. I decided to give it to my classes anyway and three teachers came to get copies of it to give to theirs. After the first dismissal, I decided not to bother doing any work for the second part. As for the algebra exam, I was only shown it late on Friday. I offered a few suggestions but not enough since I hadn't had time to look at it carefully until just now. Maybe certain people don't believe teachers need to be experienced, but writing a good exam does require practice and know how.)