Final exam blues

Now with only eight more days to turn in all our extra credit, past due projects, make-up work and schmooze a better grade out of our teachers, it is our turn to really stress.

Many students feel that midterm exams are the most stressful part of the semester. But that is a common misperception. Midterms are the easiest exams of the semester. They are geared to gage a student's potential and progress in a class.

Even a failing grade on a midterm is salvageable. Besides that small blessing, midterms are easier to study for because there is less information to remember.

By the time finals roll around, we have been swamped with excessive information, numerous irrelevant tangents, and pages and pages of doodles and scribbles we refer to as notes. Even if the final is not cumulative, the information learned in the first half of the semester forms the basis of the second half. Even if not tested on the first part of the class, you need to know it to complete the work for the final.

Another stress of finals is that they can make or break a student's grade. How many times have you said to yourself "If I get a B on the final, I can pass the class?" Come on and admit it, we have all been there at one time.

Yes it is often our final exam grades that we fret over until we receive that wonderful postcard in the mail revealing our class grade. And it is often that very final exam that saves us from repeating another semester in the same boring class all over again.

Unfortunately, some of us do not pull off the end of the semester miracle. For those poor souls who are doomed to the repeat-delete process, there is still one thing that makes it all worth while: The month-and-a-half long winter break.