By: Marcus Cottrell
Overcrowded lounges, packed libraries, and faces buried in textbooks are all visuals you might see on a college campus during finals weeks.
Finals week for college can be one of the most anticipated times during the semester. While many students look forward to the week, as it is a sign that the semester has come to an end, other students dread the process.
SUNY Brockport Senior Ryan Forzano has been dealing with finals week for four years now. “It’s definitely a time where you have to kind of be laser focused, and really put in the time and effort,” said Forzano.
For many colleges and universities, finals week consists of final exams and projects, that are heavily weighted and have grading curves, that can really effect a students final overall grade.
“With being so far along in school, I can’t afford to have a bad final because graduation is right around the corner, so with that it makes me extremely nervous because I have four exams this semester,”said Forzano
According to Pepperdine.edu, finals week has been proven to worsen anxiety and stress by using inadequate coping techniques and pressure from both internal and external sources.
For many students during the regular semester, times can become extremely stressful and anxiety can start to build up, so it is important to find a coping technique in order to properly deal with the stress finals week comes with.
“For the past two years, I have completely taken off from work the entire week. For me just being able to have a free and opened schedule helps because at any point and time I can just go study if I feel like I need to be refreshed on material,” said Forzano.
According to a study performed by Jennifer Graham-Engeland, an associate professor of Biobehavioral Health, she found that there are many ways in which stress can manifest and impair health and well-being and effect the brains ability while taking an exam.
“In past years when I started to stress while studying, I would just take a break and put my notes or textbook down for 30 minutes or so. For me, if I don’t take breaks ill just begin to read the material instead of actually comprehending it and making sure that I understand what to do,” said Forzano.
In Graham-Engeland’s study she found that when students remove themselves from a stressful situation and allows themselves some time to breathe can help control stress.
Troy Steiner, a professor of Introduction to Wellbeing and Positive Psychology, agreed with Graham-Engeland and in his study found that students getting eight hours of sleep the night before an exam performed four points higher on their final exams than those who did not sleep at least eight hours
According to Pepperdine.edu there are five techniques that a student can follow during finals week;
-Practice Self-Care habits
-Ask for help
-Find a study loction/buddy
-Complete a nonacademic activity
-Get started on studying
“My first year of college, during finals week I would say I didn’t even know how to properly study for my exams. I knew what was going to be on the exam but I still didn’t know what ti expect,” said Forzano.
According to a study at Chestnut Hill College there are several strategies to use for studying;
-Make a finals game plan
-Study in an order of Definitely, probably, or might be on the final
-Read notes aloud which will cause you to think deeper
-Quiz yourself
With the semester ending soon for any academic help, click here for the Academic Success Center, Which is open Monday through Thursday 8A.M to 8P.M. and Friday 8A.M. to 5P.M.
