[kjs3]

Maybe it's a regional thing. I definitely had cumulative final exams in GA & FL in the 70s and early 80s. The new generation are in the South and West, and while I don't know all the details of each child's school, the wailing and gnashing of teeth about 'final exams' is consistent across all of them[1]. Since we don't really have national standards in the US for such things, it's shouldn't be a surprise that there could be differences in how grades are handled.

[1] To be fair, the kids could just be using 'exam' and interchangeably with 'test' and it isn't a capstone for the year. But that still belies the assertion that 'exam' isn't used much in the US.