Dear Professors,

Why? Why do you do this to us? Finals are HORRIBLE. They are a major source of premature grey hairs, stress and anxiety. Personally, I believe finals should be considered obsolete for more than a couple valid reasons.

My first argument has to do with our grades. After a whole semester of studying and perfect attendance, a final is the one thing that can really screw our lives over. Finals that count for a majority of our grade put to shame our tireless semester long efforts. It is not fair for one test to ruin everything we had worked for all semester. Unlike most teachers claim, the finals are not here to help our grade; they are here to ruin our lives. Finals are a means of examining a student's knowledge from the entire semester. However what professors fail to understand is recalling all the information from five or more classes is near IMPOSSIBLE! This necessary cramming results in stressed out students that turn to other means of studying. 

In order to deal with this stress, students begin to abuse Adderall. Even though Adderall is supposed to prescribed to people who have  ADHD, it is used on college campuses as a study aid. While students have the right intentions, the use of Adderall without being prescribed is dangerous. From symptoms such as headaches and loss of appetite, to symptoms as severe as seizures and hallucinations, the abuse of Adderall on college campuses during finals week is increasingly frightening. This pressure begs the question of whether getting good grades on finals is more important than some of these students health… 

Now how does that make you feel?? 

Not only is the abuse of Adderall a reason why I think finals should not exist, but money spent on coffee isn't cheap either. 

Coffee is essential to most college students lives. Their daily routine consists of waking up with a cup of Joe. Finals week takes caffeine dependency to a whole new level. One-cup can increase to three or four cups a day. Not only is the increasing amount of coffee bad for one’s health, but also it is very expensive. I mean for goodness sake, we are broke college students and spending three dollars or more adds up for a whole week. It’s crazy because throughout the semester, students try to be very conscious of their money, but once finals week begins, they don’t care as long as the money is going towards something that will help them. They NEED to spend this much money in order to stay awake and study as long as they need to. 

My last reason has to do with the students’ emotions. As finals near, more and more students have less of a desire or less motivation to study enough for their finals. We have worked our tails off all semester and we are tired. Having a week off for Thanksgiving and then coming back and having to begin studying for finals is UNFAIR. After a long semester of studying, stressing, and exhaustion, finals are the last thing that we, students, want to do. We just want a break. We NEED a break. 

With all that I have said, I hope that you finals are an unnecessary torture. As a student, I wish that teachers realized how much finals affected us. With everything else that we have to worry about and stress about outside of finals, teachers should give us a break and allow them to be optional, or even better JUST NOT EXIST.

Thank you, 

Your Fellow Stressed Out Student