Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Don't neglect the basics during finals week
By Jenessa Farnsworth
The Daily Universe (BYU)
04/25/2006

(U-WIRE) PROVO, Utah — It's down to crunch time now, though some will tell you it's been crunch time for the last three weeks. The week of long tests, long papers, and long nights spent staring at textbooks are at last upon us. The symptoms are clear on the faces of all you meet: Rings around the eyes, heavy school bags, and recitation of the exact formula that makes up the theory of relativity. The epidemic plagues almost everyone on BYU campus. Bird flu is nothing to be worried about. Flu season is long past us. Only one thing can explain this plague.

Yes, it's finals week.

The week is easily the most dreaded and sometimes most anticipated week of the semester. It signals that the light at the end of the tunnel is near, and soon all the stress from the last several weeks will be brought to an end. Of course, the blessed relief isn't without its cost: the tests that loom over the week are often 100- or 200-question monstrosities, threatening to devour grades, social lives, and the much-desired luxury of "sleep" all in one gulp. The so-called light at the end of the tunnel is often devoured by the radiant glow of a computer screen as many students, myself included, forsake food and other such unnecessary items. The only important thing is the grade. That monster called the "Final Exam" is daunting, and only a sharp mind can combat it successfully.

The beast more often than not succeeds in its goal, however. Sleep is forsaken, as is food, and social lives are all but forgotten after the last sanctuary of "reading days" are left behind. Finals week is filled with late nights and early mornings, and more students than ever before can be found sleeping in the library or in classrooms. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner all come from vending machines. Only at the end of a long day full of studying do students finally stagger home, where only more studying awaits them.

On many an occasion, I too have crumpled under the stress of finals. I pulled all-nighters, often on several nights in a row. I've woken up at 5:30 a.m. to crawl off to a 6:30 final, and often I forgot altogether about food. My rations became Twix bars and Cheetos. While the lifestyle was probably less than healthy, it was what was required to get that A on the last exam of the semester, and thereby hopefully salvage a grade that had fallen over the last few weeks as "crunch time" started and drained all my strength and motivation.

Unfortunately for me, however, I forgot that sleep and food are usually necessary to the basic thought processes that make up the human mind. So, as a result of neglecting my body, my performance on my tests was sadly less-than-stellar. The grades I'd hoped to save still turned out all right, but it certainly was no thanks to my final exams. The papers I finished up and turned in didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, and the projects suffered as well.

So, to all of you students with your nose to the grindstone, who are working yourselves to the bone: relax. You're probably more likely to do well without the long nights and early mornings. Besides, how much of that 3 a.m. quantum physics cramming will really stick in your skull when you're looking at it at 4 a.m? Try going to bed early and studying during the day instead. Early to bed, early to rise, and all that. If you really try, I'm sure you can even find time to eat and possibly go out to dinner or a movie with some friends. You'll probably appreciate the relaxation and thank yourself for it later. Besides, soon enough, all the stress will be gone.

At least, until next semester starts.

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