I believe that an effective method of measuring the student's performance is having many frequent tests, not a one-shot final exam. One reason is that infrequent, high-stakes exams don't encourage students to do their best work. With more frequent testing, students would be less anxious when they take exams; thus anxiety would no longer interfere with exam performance. Another reason is that more frequent testing encourages students to review on a regular basis. Therefore, there won't be the common problem of having to cram for the final exam. The most important reason is that students will get lots of feedback. They would know early on in the course what terms or concepts required additional explanation and review. They wouldn't have to wait until the end of the semester to find out that they had misunderstood, or missed altogether, a critical point or theory.