It’s finally here. The week we’ve all been waiting for. The week of post-Grand Prix recovery and gearing up for finals. Dead week.
The week marketed to us students as the most important study week of the semester. We’ve been told that dead week is meant to help us prepare for finals because we can devote an entire week to nothing but studying and focusing. But, I think it’s time to agree that isn’t what actually happens. So maybe it’s time for colleges and universities to quit selling the sham that is dead week.
What’s supposed to be an entire week of review in class rarely turns out to be. Personally, I still have new material to cover in at least 3 of my classes. In another class, we have group presentations all week. A 10-15 minute presentation, a Q&A critique of another group, and a group critique sheet for yet another group. The work load isn’t terrible. But seeing as I was told this week is supposed to be a breeze, I’m not too pleased with what I’m getting into.
I know many people here in the same boat. New lessons on multiple days this week. Recitation quizzes on Tuesday or Thursday. New material being piled on top of an already quite large study-mountain right before finals. And again, I’m not complaining about the work load or the fact that I’m being forced to learn new things in college (a crazy concept, I know). I’m just commenting on the fact that I have to do these things during a week in which I was told I’d have to do little to nothing for any class.
I already had hell week, thank you very much. In fact, I had three consecutive hell weeks. For those of you that don’t know, hell week is generally the week before dead week during which every due date under the sun seems to fall. Late semester exams, final papers, presentations, and group projects all seem to converge on this week. And most people, including myself, have two or more weeks of hell leading up to dead week.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be expected to do all these things. This is college, after all. I’m just saying that it’s a lot easier to get through them with an apparent light at the end of the tunnel before finals. It’s pretty disheartening to approach what you thought was the end of the tunnel only to discover it’s actually an abandoned lamp and the tunnel’s end is still much further away.
I think the solution to this is simple. Don’t lighten the work load because that defeats the purpose of getting the education. But quit selling dead week.
When I was at the University of Indianapolis, we didn’t have a dead week. They didn’t lie and make us believe that we would get a break before finals. We all went into April knowing that the entire month was going to suck, culminating with finals week which would suck even worse. But, getting into that mindset made the month go by much easier. I knew that I would have to grind for four weeks then it’d all be over.
The sham of dead week makes the grinder’s mindset impossible. Grind through two weeks of hell. Take a week off, but not really because you still have stuff to do. Then re-prepare yourself for finals week. Yeah, right. That’s a lot of emotional turmoil for the average unstable college kid.
Stop lying to us. Don’t tell us dead week will be a relaxed week to study for finals and then throw us to the wolves anyway. Tell us it's just like every other week of the semester. I promise that will be better for everyone involved.
