This report provides a comparative cost analysis of three different methods of developing final examinations for secondary schools in the Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland. Based on expenditure reports and interviews with central and school-based staff, cost estimates were developed for three kinds of exams: (1) the county-wide final exam/departmental exam approach mandated by Senior High School Policy; (2) departmental final exams alone; and (3) final exams made by individual teachers. The study found that the Board-mandated approach is by far the most expensive of the three alternatives, costing from 30 to 150 percent more than the other approaches. It should be noted that over 95 percent of the costs which were recorded in this analysis were not incremental or out-of-pocket costs but rather were "opportunity costs" resulting from (1) providing teachers with a half day of release time each semester to work with their colleagues on jointly developed departmental exams, (2) teachers spending additional time developing final exams, and (3) allocating roughly 25 percent of academic subject coordinator time and 1150 equivalent days during the previous summer to the development of uniform countywide exams. (Author/BS)