With finals season just around the corner, a Stevens student must be willing to sacrifice any will to live. The Registrar has no mercy — a three-hour test slot could strike at any inconvenient time so good luck if you have any mandatory life events coming up. Additionally, many professors decide that, no, a test is not enough — you MUST have a group project in addition to every final for every class. So, without further ado, here are the Stevens’s Finals Period red flags.
Why on earth anyone thinks it’s acceptable to schedule a final on the weekend is beyond me. It’s bad enough to have to wake up on a Saturday at 10 a.m. and lock in for three hours, but sometimes you don’t even have finals on the weekdays! One year, I had two finals, both on the weekend at the very end of the finals season, so for two weeks, I was trapped in Hoboken doing absolutely nothing. Additionally, some professors should seriously consider not using their assigned final testing block — if we are trapped, so are they! The most clutch professors are the ones who let you take the final in class before finals period, especially because that frees up more studying time during finals period. The absolute un-clutch professors are the HASS professors who use their assigned finals block for a 40-minute test that could have occurred during class.
Group projects already suck in general, but during finals season, all of the stereotypical problems are to the 100th power. Everyone is stressed out and unresponsive. Without a doubt, one special trooper gets stuck with all of the work on top of studying for exams, while the rest use the excuse of being super busy, even though everyone and their mother are also busy. Professors should pick one or the other, a test or an exam, to demonstrate understanding of the course. Assigning both is just overkill and enhances the suffering of students.
Finally, we as students and our study habits are a major red flag. We attempt to cram a semester’s worth of skipping classes and pushing off memorization into two weeks. Staying up until ungodly hours locked in a study room is just the norm, and then we take final exams on negative six hours of sleep. Does it make more sense to study throughout the semester? 100%, but that would be too simple. Of course, we would rather study for five classes while writing three essays and completing two large projects.
Also, to the 30% of every class taking a final that all of a sudden needs to use the bathroom twenty minutes into a test, I’m on to you. Cheating in the bathroom is in violation of the #stevenshonorcode and you should be very disappointed in yourself!!! Okay, all jokes aside, we are all into it together, so cheating lowkey screws up the curve for everyone else — don’t do it. Plus you make the professors 600% more angry when there is obviously cheating, and then they take it out on the whole entire class.
With all of that said, remember to take care of yourself during this finals season. Take study breaks, get some sleep, and drink water. Self care is a #greenflag, and you will need the proper fuel to get through this. We are all in this together ducks, here’s to the final push!
