Nights are bright with holiday lights and joy is in the air, but students must first survive finals week before they can celebrate with their friends and family.
As students count the days until winter break, many become more and more worried about the final semester tests for each of their classes.
Whether it’s a socratic seminar in English class or a DBQ (document-based-question essay) in history, these final exams test the student’s knowledge of the curriculum taught throughout the semester. However, many students find the condensed testing week overwhelming and stressful because of its large effect on semester grades.
Throughout their years of experience with testing, many students and teachers have developed their own techniques to get through the stressful week.
Carlmont history teacher Greg Schoenstein advises his students to use a common technique known as ‘chunking’ the information to study during dead week.
“Study a little bit each night,” said Schoentstein. “Don’t get too stressed and make sure to get enough sleep. If you cram all of the studying into one night, you’ll be too tired to complete the test to the best of your abilities.”
When using Schoenstein’s method, students study the information in small chunks in order to get a better understanding and to complete the task without getting emotionally and physically drained.
Some students, like sophomore Rhea Subramanian, have a very similar technique to that of Schoenstein, breaking the work into chunks.
“Try to focus on two subjects a day because that’s how you’ll take the finals and it keeps you from being overwhelmed by all the work,” said Subramanian.
No matter what technique they choose to use while studying for finals week, many students believe that an important part of preparing for the final exams is making sure that they don’t feel overwhelmed and that they can still enjoy the holiday season with their family.
Junior Paris Bartolo said, “The most important thing to remember is not to stress too much because you won’t preform as well and it will just end up ruining your holiday.”