The following are excerpts from an interesting study which was recently highlighted in the Teaching Professor:

Khanna, M. M., Badura Brack, A. S., and Finken, L. L. (2013). Short- and long-term effects of cumulative finals on student learning. Teaching of Psychology, 40 (3), 175-182.

Mean scores on content exams versus a cumulative final were compared in introductory psych sections and upper-division psychology sections. The finding: “[C]lasses taking cumulative finals performed reliably better than classes who had noncumulative finals.” (p. 177)

Retention of course material was also measured using online content exams for courses taken one, two, and three semesters previously. “Regardless of type of course, students with cumulative finals did better on departmental content tests than students in courses with noncumulative exams. …” (p. 180)

“As a result of these findings, we believe using cumulative finals improves student learning, and we encourage instructors to utilize cumulative finals in their courses… [E]ven in our optimal study condition (immediate content exam administration in upper-division courses with cumulative finals) students only answered 82% of the content exam items correctly. In the worst condition (18 month time lag for introductory psychology courses with noncumulative finals), students retained just over half of the important information from introductory psychology.” (p. 180)