Jasmine Bautista | Contributing Writer
Finals week is said to be the most stressful week for college students. Is it really that stressful or are they forgetting about the week before, otherwise known as “hell week”? Yeah that sounds about right. The week is spent binge eating from stress, wasting the majority of money on extra shots of espresso in any caffeine drink, losing sleep to reread a chapter that may possibly be on a test, and sleeping in uncomfortable positions on tables, coauhes, and chairs in all educational buildings around campus. Not to mention the amounts of phone calls made to campus security to unlock a classroom for studying. Yup, oh wait, and the amount of time one begins to inhabit the library practically molding to the table. There it is, “hell week”.
Students go crazy preparing for final exams and finalizing other presentations and major projects. The time commitment becomes greater than ever, all for the satisfaction of completion. When the due date arrives and the drop box closes, the sigh of relief is heard.
How much do students actually take away? The final exam is supposed to represent the knowledge that was accumulated all semester long. Professors believe that their students are studying from the beginning for these tests. Reality check, we are not. We are to busy finishing homework, practicing for presentations, stressing over the last tests, and trying to complete note cards and study guides that are supposed to help. How much does all that really accomplish?
The pressures of doing well are real. Many students feel them from family, mentors, and professors. The final test is not about the facts and statistics, techniques, or lectures we learned about over a whole semester, it is what an individual was able to cram the week or night before. Finals are viewed as a way to see the progress of students from the beginning to end. Well it seems that the only progress that is made is how much less time it takes to stress and barely sleep.
Hell week and finals week become so stressful they seem to make students unhealthy. The amount of stress that they carry upon the last two weeks is unrealistic. They over-stress, causing their efforts in studying to fail and then motivation is gone. Students go hours and sometimes days with no sleep trying to make sure they meet every deadline and complete every expectation that is given, all while thinking they are doing well.
Mentally, it seems like many students are not as stable as at the beginning or middle of the semester. Realization that deadlines are approaching causes panic for many. Students wonder if professors realize that they have other major classes they need to focus on and cannot show favoritism towards one. Time management is skill that students all tend to master within these two final weeks.
Can we really say we are being tested on things we learned all semester or just what was crammed in our minds a few days or hours in advance? How can the finals truly show the progress of students when pressures and unstable mindsets are distracting them from truly focusing on the material? The limitations of how much students can handle are usually met fairly quickly, and without being able to take a well-deserved break the mind continues to run. Students’ final work is the achievements of work being done within the last two weeks that may be not even meet the full potential because of all the extra weight being carried. Maybe with time, finals week will actually meet its real definition and purpose, but for now it is still the bit of mental crunch time.
Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons
