Students cope with finals week in a variety of ways

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Dec. 14, 2016

Students cope with finals week in a variety of ways

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

“Finals week” — that phrase is a college student’s nightmare.

But Boomer is relaxed.

Sure, Boomer has fur, four legs and barks. He doesn’t have to worry about finals. There is not a lot to worry about in this 4-yearold dog’s life.

His job is to make sure students at the University of Wisconsin-Washington County know it’s OK. They will get through finals week as long as they’re like him: relaxed.

“It’s really nice to be able to take a break, even if it’s just for five minutes,” second-year student Mary Greuel said, standing a few feet away from Boomer lying on his side on a two-seated couch. He moved for a few things: when his name was called or someone gave him a good scratch.

“It’s been a fun experience having Boomer here,” she added.

Tammy Becker, Boomer’s owner, said Boomer, a former racing greyhound, comes to campus regularly because she works on campus. During finals week, though, she’ll take him around campus to mingle with students.

“You can see the release on their face in a way,” Becker said. “They might be walking down the hallway, very serious and then their face just lights up. It’s like they forget everything but the dog.”

Colleges and universities around the country do different things to help students get through what is often an emotionally challenging week for students.

At UW-WC, the school offers a free breakfast the day before finals or sit-downs with therapy dogs such as Boomer, who is a member of Healing Paws Group of Fond du Lac, meaning Boomer is a certified therapy dog.

Michelle Appel, mental health counselor at UW-WC, said another way to help students focus on finals is to keep them on campus. That minimizes distractions or temptations that can be found at home or elsewhere.

Appel is also the College Life Exploration Center coordinator. There in Room 308, students can meet other students and do just about anything from socializing to study groups to academic advice. The idea? To make college, especially finals week, as relaxing as possible.

“We care,” Appel said when asked what advice she typically offers to a student stressed by finals. “We care about their success, their well-being.”

What finals mean to a college student varies depending on the student. Those variables include the value of the final toward the final grade.

Other variables include money. One’s financial aid could depend on a certain grade in a class.

The fall semester finals may be tougher than the spring semester finals, partially because fall finals line up with the holiday season. Or consider a firstyear student: It’s the first time he or she are experiencing college finals.

In high school, the tests and the timeline is more structured. In college, it’s more like “you’re on your own.”

Greuel remembers her first college exam experience well.

“It was a little more stressful than most,” she said. “I had major knee surgery coming up. That went halfway into finals so I had to half my finals early.

“So I had the stress of doing my finals early, surgery, holidays as well as trying to adjust to college. It’s really difficult.”

Another factor to consider during finals is that a test often reviews the entire semester of work rather than up to a certain point.

“There’s so much to digest,” Appel said. “The stress of doing well on one test and so much information coming at you is overwhelming.”

Christian La Cosse, a first-year UW-WC student, has a different approach to finals week.

He believes the high stress of finals is all in people’s heads.

“I think finals are more revved up than they should be,” the 2015 Port Washington High School graduate said. “I feel like kids are stressed probably because they feel it’s an obligation to.”

That might be aided by the horror stories of finals week, such as a calculator breaking, a professor not willing to cooperate with or accommodate a student, getting sick the day of or being up 24 hours straight or more cramming for exams.

“That was terrifying,” Greuel said when asked what horror stories worried her going into her first college finals week. “Am I going to be that stressed out for finals? Thankfully, I wasn’t.

“All the horror stories I had were honestly people not managing their time well.”

That may be the biggest lesson Greuel ever learned when it came to finals week.

Another lesson she learned was communication. Jenny Tiedt, a non-traditional student, learned that as well.

“If you’re having problems, you’ve got to talk to the teacher,” Tiedt said.

They’ve also learned it’s just another test. La Cosse said if you value finals like you do any other test earlier in the school year, then nothing will be different.

“If you know it’s coming, then there’s no reason to (stress out),” La Cosse said.

It should be business as usual.

“Don’t stress out,” Greuel said. “It seems simple and it’s hard to tell someone who’s stressed out to not stress out.

“In the end, these are just tests. They’re just a portion of your grade. Don’t let it have too much power over you.”