First trimester, finals week was terrible. Obviously. 4 days of non stop cramming and testing is not appealing for anyone. I remember one day I even had a melt down and cried on the phone with my mom for a couple minutes. NCSSM academics is just so fast paced that trying to study for a whole trimester's worth of material is very overwhelming. And then there were the seniors. The seniors loved finals week. Because finals week means extra good food, no classes, no homework, sleep-ins, good food, and really good food. As a first trimester junior, I couldn't understand how they were studying and relaxing at the same time. I felt so unprepared and felt like I had wasted a whole trimester, and they felt so free and were excited to start the next trimester.
This week is finals week. And I am now a third trimester junior. After 2 tries, I have finally learned how to not have a melt down during finals week. The secret? Not falling behind during the trimester. And learning to calculate your predicted class grade before and after the exam.
We are two days into finals week and I am doing just fine. Of course there is that stressful, "I'm going to fail" feeling a couple hours before the exam, however, I feel much more prepared. As I study, rather than realizing how much I've missed in class due to daydreaming, I feel more and more confident about how much I actually know the material. This confidence has allowed me to slack off... slightly, and I should get back to studying, but it has also allowed me to keep from stressing out. The biggest thing I learned about finals, is that it is not just another way for teachers to torture you. Final exams are a way to prove to your professor how much you've learned. Knowing that before the trimester you knew nothing about the subject, and now knowing every detail about it, should be quite rewarding. Now back to studying to keep my record of a meltdown-less finals week...
