Finals finals finals. At the beginning of a new semester, we underestimate them. We tell ourselves we’ll review our notes three times a week. We joke by saying we’ll go to office hours as often as we can. Mid-semester, when you haven't done any of those things, we comfort ourselves — we’ll start studying soon, you know, just lightly cram in what we’ve learned. The night before your final, you've had about two cups of coffee and you wonder if sleeping on your textbook will be more effective than reading it. Other than the obvious cram sessions, finals really suck. So, let's delve into the other terrible parts of finals.
1. Awful timing
Everyone will encounter that awfully timed final at one point in their college career. There are the 7:15 am tests that make you want to curl up in bed and never leave. Although rare, you may also encounter a final that takes place on the weekend (horrible, I know). There are back to back tests that drain you of energy and knowledge. And, of course, there are also the tests that ruin the super awesome vacation you were planning. Finals may all be awful but clearly, some are worse than others.
2. Faulty tests
Have you ever spent 23 minutes trying to solve a problem on a test only for the professor to tell everybody that they wrote the question in wrong? No? Lucky you. It’s not uncommon for professors to realize midway through the exam that they’ve made a mistake. Usually, we can forgive them for their mishaps but only when they’ve saved us before we started working on the question.
3. Make or break a grade
Some of us like to live our lives on the edge. When I say “on the edge” I mean that we don’t mind having grades that could easily plummet down another letter. Others of us do not like to live on the edge but have still found ourselves straddling the line between an A or a B, a B or a C, etc. Finals can, with lots of studying and a little luck, push you up to the grade that you want. They can also, with very little studying and no amount of luck, drown your grade in the dark abyss that is the below-passing mark.
With any luck, you won’t encounter any of these finals tragedies more than once or twice in your college career. Good luck with finals and, as always, happy testing!
