Today is the last day of school and the day of my Chemistry Essentials final. We have an altered schedule with 90 minute periods during final exams and, no matter how long I’ve made the test, I’ve never had students take more than an hour on a final for this course. I think a lot of students just hit a wall where they can’t focus on a written test any longer, especially since I usually teach the class during the last period. Instead of fighting that block, the other teacher and I agreed to split the exam period into a shorter written final and a lab. We picked a fairly straightforward exothermic reaction lab that we ran out of time for during the regular unit. This is definitely an approach to final exams I want to keep in the course, if not shift to an entirely lab-based final.