Oberlin College is one of a growing number of schools that publish student, staff, and faculty blogs to help share a bit of campus life with the outside world. They seem mostly geared towards prospective students, but they’re pretty fun to look through even if you’re already in school.
I came across a cool post today called Finals are fun!, which was all about the good ways campus life changes during finals week. She points out how students attire, eating habits, sleep schedules, and even Facebook activity changes, and makes a good point that it’s actually quite liberating to spend a whole week in pajamas, eating potato chips and drinking energy drinks.
Fun? Definitely! Counterproductive? My first thought was yes. I didn’t see how eating and sleeping poorly could possibly help anyone ace a final. But, I thought a bit more and came to realize two things:
- All of that eating poorly, bumming around in PJs, and spending too much time on Facebook can be a great de-stresser.
- TO AN EXTENT, it’s probably helpful to waste some time and keep your stress level low. Let’s face it. If you haven’t learned at least some of what you need to know for finals BEFORE finals week, you’re probably not going to learn it all anyway. You’ll be better off keeping yourself relaxed and studying a little bit (ie, not cramming), than you will walking into a final all stressed out.
So yes, it’s probably FINE to let yourself go a little more than usual during finals. Even if it’s not REALLY ok, it’s so acceptable at most colleges that you probably should just enjoy it anyway! Happy testing everyone, and don’t forget to shower before your parents come to pick you up.
