The sun is shining, classes are over and you're feeling good. You feel as though a weight has been lifted off your shoulders... until you realize what the end of the semester brings. This is arguably the most important week of the semester, and how you approach it will have a serious impact on your success. Welcome to Hell Week, ladies and gentlemen -- or as universities like to call it, "Finals Week."

1. Disbelief

Is it really the end of the semester already? Did February even happen? Disbelief is the first stage of finals week. Before doing anything else, you need at least a day just to wrap your head around the fact that 14 weeks have flown by and you’re now only a week away from summer vacation.

2. Denial

Ha ha, no. I don’t have a final in three days. I don’t have to start studying yet. No. Who wants to go out? Stage two: denial. Your brain just cannot face the fact that it is indeed finals week, so you’ll just continue living as if it is not.

3. Bargaining

At this point you’re willing to do just about anything to get out of taking these tests. If you're anything like me, your Twitter feed will look something like:

"Will sell my soul to avoid finals." Or "I wish I had an identical twin whose only purpose in life is to take my finals for me."

4. Guilt

Right about now you’re experiencing some regrets. Maybe you're feeling a little guilty for skipping that class once or twice… or five times. Or guilty about sleeping through 50 percent of your Calc lectures...oops. You might also be feeling guilty about all the stress eating you’ve been doing over the past week. But hey, pizza's a vegetable, right?

5. Anger

By stage five, you're angry. You're angry that you've waited this long to study. You're angry that it's finally getting warm out but your days must be spent in the library, nose in a book. You're angry that the final is cumulative. Not only is this test worth 30 percent or more of your final grade, but you’re expected to remember everything you’ve learned over the last 14 weeks. How dare the professors assign such a thing.

6. Depression

You struggle to get out of bed in the mornings. Motivation is completely gone. What's the point? The only highlight of my day will be crawling back into my bed later tonight anyway. And when the stress gets to be too much, well, sometimes you just got to let out a big, ugly sob. Or five.

7. Acceptance

So yeah, maybe finals are a product of Satan himself. But you know what? Finals week also means one other thing: summer is upon us. And the thought of spending four months at home, primarily stress-free, is all the motivation I need to get through this week.