During “finals” week, students are very stressed about their academic career. It is a time when the end of the semester is near, and the workload is packed densely in a short span of time. This workload can involve a series of exams and projects that are to be submitted within a short span of time. In such a case, the stress can easily escalate and therefore cause immense stress. I think that this is a massive problem, as school is meant to be educational, not stress-inducing.

A big source of stress is the fear of failure. Because finals contribute such a big part of a course’s overall grade, students are afraid that if they fail, all their effort over the last few months will be for naught, devastating all of their hard work they put in throughout the entire semester to be erased by one exam.

Not only can finals contribute to a lack of sleep, but in many places, students pull many late nights studying for these tests, directly contributing to sleep deprivation and therefore lack of energy, adversely affecting their performance on the exam and adding even more stress. With many tests covering very difficult concepts, students are left feeling overwhelmed in their studies. By having all these symptoms they are more likely to do poorly on the test. Hopefully, in the near future, schools will adapt to make “finals” week less stressful and more productive for their students.