Financial leverage

I’m on the Schweser 2014 mock 4 morning session (Q27).

In calculating financial leverage the answer uses the average asset (end of 2008 + end of 2007 / 2)

Do we always use average to compute the leverage? Why don’t we use the end of 2008 numbers directly as it is the most up-to-date figure?!

Financial Leverage = Average Total Assets / Average Total Equity