Everyone knows about the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) but you may not know of its close cousin, the five stages of final. Although they may sound alike and share some individual stages, I'm sure you'll go through the stages of finals more often than its counterpart (especially if you go to WPI--four finals weeks a year).
1. Denial
Oh no, where did the term go? I'm 90 percent sure that it was syllabus eve about two weeks ago. There's no way the weeks went by that quickly. My professors surely can't expect me to regurgitate information I don't recall learning. Maybe this is all a dream and I'll wake up during the first week of term. The stage mostly involves trying not remember that an entire term did pass and that you were in fact actually introduced to most of the material, that is if you went to class regularly.
2. Procrastination (aka Netflix)
Ehh, I still have three day until my tests, I don't have to start studying now. There's absolutely no reason for me to even open a textbook right now. And review sessions during class, nah I'll just skip. In the mean time, lets see everything else I can do instead: Job applications, cleaning my kitchen, Netflix (if you need some recommendation, here you go), reading a book for fun (gasp! people actually do this?), table sitting for a club I'm barely involved in and maybe even doing laundry. There's still plenty of time for me to start thinking about studying! This stage is full of other things besides studying and more than 100 reasons you don't have to actually start doing anything yet.
3. Desperation
Crap, I have an exam tomorrow that I didn't know existed. Never mind the fact that it's been on the syllabus all term or that the professor has mentioned it three times in the past week, now is the time I choose to realize that I actually have to study. This stage involves cramming in the library until it closes at 3 a.m., tons of caffeine - those Dunks ladies are fantastic for a reason - and pleading to whichever deity you can think of, like the Goddess of Good Grades, my personal favorite.
4. Exam Day
Today's the day. Take whatever knowledge you've learned in the past term or last night and put your pencil to paper. Write as much information as possible in the 50 minutes given and hope its enough. If you've got a multiple choice exam and making up answers isn't an option, good luck to you. For those of you who skipped the first three steps, sorry, you still have to experience this, but you're likely to be more prepared than most of your classmates. This stage involves broken pencils, swearing students, and crunching deadlines. Proceed with extreme caution when approaching a student at stage four.
5. Acceptance
The worst is over. You've hopefully passed all your finals and classes, too. If it's questionable, there's usually nothing you can do about it at this point. This stage includes students who aren't even focused on the next term, they're worried on what they're going to do that night to relax.
So congratulations! You've survived finals week. At least for this term...
