Finals week… it can be a student’s worst enemy or their greatest advantage. For most students trying to wrap up the semester, finals can seem like another obstacle to getting a good grade. On the other hand if a student has a bad grade in a class finals may be  their last chance to raise their grade significantly. When it comes to studying for finals there are generally three main approaches. To start there’s the students striving for an A, they’re extremely prepared and practically know more than the teacher before the test. Then there’s your average student, they’ve looked over the review and maybe watched a couple of youtube review videos until they understood the topics. Overall, they think they’ve got the gist of the class. Finally, there are those students who simply didn’t study. They took one look at the review and decided to call it a day. Whichever student you were last semester it either worked really well or it was a struggle. Isaiah Evans, a freshman this year, said his goal for the end of the semester was to just pass. Going in he didn’t study and was hoping to coast on through with a C. Although Evans wasn’t very nervous another freshman this year Quynn Roberson was worried because “everyone said it’s really hard even though some of them were harder than others.”. The general consensus on finals was that they’re over-hyped, but are definitely something to study and prepare for. 

To start finals are stressful because there are multiple tests on several different subjects all in the span of one week. It is also argued that having one test be worth so much of your grade makes students perform poorly because of the amount of pressure placed on students to take this one test. On the other hand, if you have worked hard all semester then taking a final should not be difficult and should show you how much you have learned throughout the semester. Often times finals act as a reality check for those students who cram for tests to just forget everything moments later. Mrs.Case a math teacher at Arlington High School said, “I think it’s important for kids to understand their learning can’t just be once I’ve learned it then I don’t need it anymore and I can forget about it… our goal is to prepare kids for college.”. What students learn as their classes get harder is everything builds on itself. For Mrs.Case, as a math teacher, this is even more apparent because having that initial understanding is crucial for success in upper level math classes. Having that good foundation will help students to be successful in the future and finals are a way to keep kids motivated.

In my opinion, finals week is a struggle for everyone, there’s just no way around it. No one likes taking a test on everything they’ve learned throughout the semester. However, finals are important because they prepare students for college. They not only help students learn the studying skills and time management strategies necessary to be successful when it counts; but, they stop kids from cramming just to forget it later.