College 4 Realz...... Finals Week

After a lot of hard work, new experiences and a lot of fun, we have officially finished our first semester of college and now blissfully retreat to recuperate over a month long winter break. Also, now we have a good idea of what the dreaded Finals Week involves. When you think of college finals the first thing that comes to mind is stress, coffee and energy drinks, and pulling lots of all-nighters.

 However, in our experience, that is not really the case. As always, keep in mind that our experience may differ from others based on college differences and study habits. For finals week, all regular classes are over, and you only have to go to class one time during the week to take your final. This means your schedule is really empty. All that time spent going to class, getting ready to go to class and recovering from class has turned into free time where you don’t really know what to do with yourself. “But Jennah,” I hear you saying, “What about all the studying and madness involved with taking finals?” Well, it is not as crazy as you might think. Classes have basically ended, so there is no more homework to complete, or very minimal if you have assigned projects or other things to finish up. And, studying for a final does not take very long and there is only so much you can do to be prepared for it. Of course, this is usually the case if you stay on top of homework and assignments, and study along with the course of the class. If you do the bare minimum and don’t do your stuff throughout the semester, then yes, you will have a very stressful week. But being the good students that we are (insert angel wings and halo here) we really did not want to study all the time for subjects we felt comfortable with.

                So, to pass the time, our finals week was filled with holiday parties, messing around with each other or just having some alone time. People around campus do a great job of making finals really fun, especially around the holidays. There are cookie decorating parties, game nights, movies, some clubs had pizza for people and Greek life did whatever Greek life does. Teachers have study sessions and my riding instructor even had ice cream in the tack room for after our final ride. Of course, there were times to really focus and study, because even if you think you know information, PLEASE study before taking the test! By the end of the week, the dorms are full of activity with people packing up and moving out for winter break, and the dining hall gets less crowded.

                Overall, finals were still a bit stressful, but it was really fun and sometimes a bit boring when there was nothing to do. My cliché advice: Keep up with your courses throughout the semester so your finals week can have minimal stress, you can get lots of sleep and be confident that everything will be fine!

Any tips you guys have for finals week?

~Jennah