It’s 80 degrees, the sun is shining bright, and there’s a warm breeze blowing. Yet the majority of students are cooped up in the library and study rooms furiously reading, writing, and completing practice problems. This behavior can only mean one thing: it’s finals season.
As the academic year comes to a close, everyone is trying to finish out the semester on a high note, with solid final grades and a GPA that reflects all of the hard work put in over the last four months. I won’t lie, this is a very stressful time of year, and as I sit here typing out this post there are a number of essays and final exams looming in the back of my mind.
That being said, the finals experience is not nearly as terrifying as I feared it would be entering college less than a year ago. All of my professors understand the gravity of these last few weeks and have lightened workloads and provided support through office hours and review sessions. Although I still have a lot of studying to do and material to cover, I feel confident that I’ve been given the tools for success this semester and am comfortable with the demands placed upon me.
Fortunately, my finals this semester are in all different shapes and sizes, which is the case with most students here. Some professors prefer papers, others presentations and projects, and some choose to give traditional exams. This is a product of a liberal arts education and taking an array of different classes. Diverse courses and professors will naturally produce diverse forms of final examination. This is beneficial because it allows students to tackle all of the assignments in different ways and manage their time how they want, reducing stress and anxiety. Papers and projects can be completed early to make room for studying. This system works well as long as you have proper time management, a skill that college teaches you and is necessary for survival both at university and in life.
In the end, as the semester winds down and the year comes to a close, I still have time to enjoy the LMU experience and make my last couple weeks in Southern California as memorable as the rest. I am thankful to my professors and the administration for making the finals process as smooth and stress free as possible. I’m happy to report to any prospective students who are, like I was, already stressed out about the demands of college exams that success is achievable, and with hard work and the professors and students here at LMU by your side, it’s almost inevitable.