Confidently speaking for the college students who read my articles, I can say that we all dislike finals. I hope not to know someone in my life who enjoys the pressures of finals week and the weeks prior. It is stressful, around a stressful time of year when most people are buying gifts for family members or simply bracing themselves to interact with them.

So, why should we have this strange happening? Why add stress?

Well, I'll tell you. I don't know.

Finals are an unnecessary part of higher academia that do nothing but stress people out and waste time for those who are doing well in their class. During the holidays, 69 percent of individuals are stressed about having a lack of time, 69 percent a lack of money, and 51 percent the feeling of giving and receiving gifts.

It is no wonder that the suicide rate rises drastically during the holidays. There are feelings of loneliness, and seeing your family, depending on your situation, sometimes doesn't exactly get you merry. Why am I saying all this? The holidays are a stressful time nationwide, dare I say worldwide.

Why have finals at all?

First of all, there should be more regulation in a university setting in the sense of grading and test giving. I have taken multiple classes, and very few have ever been the same in terms of their weighing of grades and style of teaching. Instead of giving students two big exams throughout the semester on top of the final, it would make more sense to utilize a weekly quiz system that is capable of tracking progress throughout the semester rather than just at three large points.

There are also a lot of people in university (and I know a few) who either do not care about their classes, or they just don't do well in school. There are even people who have just had a stressful semester and slacked. This would show up on the weekly quizzes and, although these situations are somewhat understandable, college isn't a complete fantasy land.

These situations are where the final would be beneficial. For people who are doing well throughout the whole semester, there is no need to test their understanding of the material comprehensively. They have demonstrated this through the weekly quizzes and proven that they are on top of their work. For those who slack, a final exam could be the last chance to prove that they simply had it rough through the semester, or slacked, but nonetheless studied to understand the class comprehensively.

However, it shouldn't be a complete change in their grade. It should be weighed the same as finals usually are. This would be only fair to the students that have worked hard the whole semester to get a good grade; otherwise, everyone could slack than do well on the final and pass.

"That isn't fair for the kids who slacked that semester," you say. I have some news of neutral nature (say that three times fast); life isn't fair. The university setting constantly perpetuates this notion that life is open-ended, people are nice, and there is always fairness in the world. There isn't and shouldn't always be.

We can't all do what we love because, in reality, we all have our limitations. This should be drilled into the brains of college students from jump because many people are going to have a rough reality check the minute they step off campus as an adult for the first time. This is not beneficial for students in the slightest, similarly to how finals are not beneficial for those who do well throughout the semester.