Ah, finals week. It's the two words that every college student dreads. It's a week full of late nights studying, stress, binge eating, papers, and exams. There is not enough time in the day to get all of the studying done and every paper written. Quite simply, finals week just sucks.
But arriving at the fall semester finals of my senior year, I have noticed there are some differences, and similarities, between it and freshman year finals week.
Freshman year I realized high school and my studying throughout the semester had not sufficiently prepared me for studying for finals and finals themselves. I had no idea what I was doing. How do you study for finals?
Freshman and senior year you still always end up cramming the night or two before your final anyway. If it's fresh in your mind you'll do great, right?
I had little confidence going into some of my finals freshman year. High school tests were nothing like this. I wanted to do well so badly. But by senior year I have learned to accept things will go as they should during finals and just hope my studying has been enough.
Freshman year you walk into your first final exam, walk in and sit down, and realize you are not ready. At all. You need more time. And you look around the room in desperation, unsure of how to start.
After a few years of finals experience, seniors somewhat have their stuff together. We've adapted techniques that help us study and we are in classes that we are more comfortable with, since more of them pertain to our majors.
Sometimes, finals just don't go your way and you don't do so well. Failure does suck. Freshmen sometimes treat a test score that isn't an A or B as the end of the world.
But after three years of finals, seniors just accept their failure like an old friend.
Another thing that hasn't changed from freshman to senior year is that you're basically only running on sugar and caffeine. You probably haven't had a proper meal in days. You just want anything that will give you an once of energy.
You're running on caffeine because you were up all night before studying. You tried everything to absorb as much information as possible and you were probably so tired that none of it makes sense. Hopefully seniors have learned to budget their time so they don't have to pull all-nighters — but that's probably a bit too hopeful...
As a senior, my finals are no longer in-class exams, but papers on papers on papers. I mean really, there's a point when you can't write any more words. You've written pages and pages of words. No more papers!
No matter what your year is, you're missing precious sleep. It's been a while since you've had a good night's sleep. It's all you want.
Sometimes your friends still want to go out during finals week since you won't be seeing each other for a whole month. Freshmen often chose FOMO over missing quality study time. You don't want to tank your GPA your first semester.
Seniors usually don't miss a chance to booze their stress away. Happy hour, liquor pitchers, 50 cent draft night? We're there.
Either way, freshmen and seniors alike rejoice at the end of finals week. No more stress, no more exams, and no more papers. You've worked hard all semester and you're damn ready for that month long break.
