For me, the most dreadful week of the fall semester isn’t finals week — it’s the week before. Famously known as “dead week,” the last week of classes before finals earns its name without trying. I’m losing sleep, forgetting to eat and barely treading water to stay on top of everything as the semester closes.
All my teachers made their finals due during dead week, causing my projects to be rushed and sloppy coming off Thanksgiving break. With Thanksgiving so late in the semester, it’s unfair for teachers to push finals into dead week.
I am a firm believer that school breaks should be used for their intended purpose: getting a break from school. I am usually plagued with burnout by Thanksgiving because it’s 14 weeks into the semester, and I need that time to rest and charge up for finals.
This fall, it was impossible for me to enjoy Thanksgiving break. I only had one week after break to prepare for my week-early finals, so I was forced to work during break if I wanted to have a good final product.
The snow cancelation on Monday made a challenging turnaround even more difficult because it was the only day during dead week that I could connect with other members of a group project.
We missed our scheduled practice time and had a less-than-ideal final project because we were given insufficient time to reschedule. If our professor kept the final in finals week, we would have had more time to perfect the project.
My teachers always excuse this injustice by saying, “I don’t want you to worry about this class during finals.” I’m confused. I thought finals week was part of the commitment to take the class.
So many of us end up with at least one or two finals lingering during the regularly scheduled finals week anyway. One teacher’s moved final never makes a significant difference. Rather than relieving stress, I usually find myself more stressed out cramming for the early deadlines.
This year, one of my teachers found a way to kill my motivation to finish strong. She made our final project due the week before finals, but our final research paper is due on finals day. All my classes are over because of the early finals, yet I have to find the motivation to complete a research paper after all my classes have effectively ended.
To teachers anxious to end the semester well for your students, think about how you may be causing stress rather than alleviating it. Early finals are unreasonably close to Thanksgiving break.
Columbine Hall. Photo by Lillian Davis.