We’ve got to be honest here; we all dread taking finals and we think they are the worst. I’m the number one supporter of that statement, but I also can’t wait to get over with finals especially when I’m close to going home. I live on campus at a school in Pennsylvania and I am originally from Houston, TX so I don’t really get to go home until the end of the semester. So, finals are the thing I dread the most but also the thing that I look forward to doing.
There’s always this lively but bittersweet feeling when finals are approaching and classes are ending. Some people are either happy or sad that classes are ending because that is the last time you are going to be in that learning environment with that professor and those peers, or you really loved that class and now you are done. We all get excited for classes to end because we know we have made it through another semester and we are done with the assignments that keep us up all night, at least I am! At my college, everyone anticipates late night breakfast, which is the night before finals begin where they provide late night dining breakfast, and everyone runs for the French toast sticks and tater tots. I think that it is a nice accommodation for dining services to provide that for students because they are out late studying and they get to refuel before going back to studying. Our library also provides late open hours during finals week and free snacks and drinks. They have this event called Snowden ‘Til Late, where they host gift card raffles, giveaways and tutoring sessions up to really late, which is different from throughout the semester. And these events help students feel more prepared for finals week or at least help distract them a bit in order to relax and enjoy the college life.
This semester I had 2 finals, I took one for Statistics and another one for psychology so you bet I spent a lot of hours studying for these tests. I was glad that my finals weren’t until the end of the week which let me have a bit of time to study, prepare and relax a bit after a long and stressful semester I really needed those few days to kind of take things slow. I was really nervous at first to take my finals because in both of these classes I was at a C and felt like the exams were going to end me, but honestly both exams weren’t bad or extremely difficult to the point that I was lost and blanking out. I studied enough but also didn’t overwhelm myself. I took breaks and ate in between study sessions to have energy throughout the day. I made and used study guides to help guide me on the material that was potentially going to be on the test, and I also did practice tests to better prepare me for the day of the exam. I didn’t stay up all night to study, I told myself that if I did that I wasn’t going to perform well on the tests (I know this because I did it plenty of times throughout the semester). I also didn’t want to overwhelm myself with material and then blanking out during the exam, so I would mainly just reviewed material from the beginning and end of the semester (especially material I didn’t know) and mildly went over some of the lessons in the middle of the semester. I was set to go for both my exams. Of course, I di stumble on some questions but that is totally okay, I wasn’t expecting to get a hundred percent or to know everything that was going to be on there, but at least I got enough points to pass both of my classes.
Some tips on taking finals for classes you academically struggled that semester is to take it slow and study material that you didn’t understand. Ask friends or peers for help and study with them if you have them in those classes. I asked one of my friends to help me study for my statistics exam, because I was lost since the middle of the semester and with her help I was able to go through the exam and understand what the problem was asking m to do or else I would completely be lost. Another option is reaching out to your professor for help, that’s their job so they shouldn’t have a problem with it. Another tip is do not overstudy, at least for me if I overstudy, I start losing information that I already knew and when it comes to taking the test I freak out and can’t match certain information with the questions.
It’s okay to feel overwhelmed and a bit stressed especially during finals week but don’t get discouraged and give up, just know you’re almost done and grades don’t define who you are!