Darya Foroohar, ‘20

January 2020

There is always a sense of dread looming this time of year, as the semester comes to a close and students take their final exams. Finals week is notorious for being a difficult time for BHSEC students, who stay up late studying, writing papers, and preparing presentations to be presented back-to-back for all of their classes. Whether you have three essays due at the start of the week or AM/PM finals for three days in a row, chances are you’re going to be complaining about your workload. I was once among you, a scared little freshman who had no idea what horrors finals week would have in store. But throughout my BHSEC career, I’ve realized that finals week is actually better than normal school. Here’s why:

1. More time. Each final slot is three hours, and teachers only write their finals to be an hour and a half at most, which means you’ll be able to finish with time to spare. You can even take a nap during your final, wake up, and complete the test! If you have spare time, you can leave and complete your other work, or you can leave early and chill out. The best days are when you either have no morning final, so you get to sleep in, or no afternoon final, so you get to leave before lunch. When you become an upperclassman, you’ll tend to have more essays instead of finals, meaning that you might have a day with no finals at all – a day where you don’t even have to go to school.

2. Everything is more chill. Your teachers know the stress of finals, and they want to help you. Many of them hold review sessions, and they are available during the week to meet and go over the material. The administration also relaxes a bit, as the auditorium is converted into a social studying hub with couches, music, and writing supplies for students to work, chat, and de-stress. (The library remains silent for people who need to do last-minute cramming without any distractions.) In addition, the Y2 committee can be found selling coffee, baked goods, and finals survival kits to hungry, sleep-deprived students. Overall, the atmosphere is much more relaxed, and you can find comfort in complaining about that super hard chem question over a cup of hot chocolate without anyone yelling at you for using your phone in the auditorium.

3. No classes. You know that feeling where you sit in class but don’t actually retain any of the information? Yeah, me too. Well, during finals week, there won’t be any classes, which gets rid of that problem. You won’t learn any new material, so you can stick to just studying what you need to know instead of distracting yourself with other classes’ work. All you have to do is take a final, and after that, you’re done! If this worries you, just remember that if you don’t know the material during the final, you probably wouldn’t have known it after one more class period, so it doesn’t matter that regular classes are suspended.

4. The semester is almost over. I don’t know about you, but I’m seriously burnt-out from this fall. Between college applications, extracurriculars, and homework, finals week provides a break and gives me hope that everything will be over soon. Next semester is just around the corner, and the beginning of classes will be much less stressful than what’s happening right now. And I know that after my last final, I can get ready for my last semester at BHSEC during the hallowed period of time called regents week.