Well Hello, after a long hiatus from writing, I am back to give some advice on how to tackle finals week and avoid exactly what I could not.

You will repeatedly hear from teachers, upperclassman, and faculty to start studying the materials many weeks in advance. You probably won’t, just as I did myself but, here are some reasons why you most definitely should.

1. A lot of students go to school here but you will see every living soul on finals week, and I mean every single one. The Main Library, Memorial Union, Tippie, and pretty much every other study spot on campus will be buzzing. The food will be gone, the spots will be filled all the way to the third floor and above, and you will be very overwhelmed.
2. You can try until you’re blue in the face but you will not remember everything you crammed into your head the night before. You just won’t. I thought I had learned better in high school but clearly, the naive first-year student in me needed another wake-up call.
3. The days of finals week pass very quickly. One moment you’re sharing a cookie with your professor on the last day of class, and the next moment you’re walking into a lecture hall to take an exam you’re nowhere near prepared for. You will spend a 7 hour day at the library and only get one days worth of work done *she types as she’s on hour 7 at the library*

My point is not to scare you but to help prepare you. I was moderately successful in all of my finals and finished with grades I was proud of. However, there is no worse feeling than knowing you could have done better and you should have spent more time with your nose in a book.

Finals week is a very stressful time for everyone who is involved. For the seniors, here begin their lasts. Some of them will graduate next week, a semester early or right on time. For the freshman here starts their journey. This is the first final test on if they will make it all four years or not. A lot of students will decide/have already decided whether they’re continuing their journey here or not. For everyone in between, their coursework is major/career specific and very important. They are applying to nursing school, business school, and a lot of other things that will be more important to me next year.

With that being said, there are many things the faculty does here on campus to relieve some of that stress. Massages, free food, and puppies are just a few. The Iowa Memorial Union and your student email will keep you updated on all of these cool events (which, I think I should add, you will not be able to enjoy if you are cramming all of your studying into one night). The University wants you to succeed not only for your own good but for the University as well. We as students are representing so much more than just ourselves here on campus. We are representing a family name, a place we called home for eighteen years and, our career field of choice.

Also, a little random piece of advice to throw in here. If you are a first-year student start collecting your flex meals early. You will be craving some chips or, you may have even skipped dinner do to long study hours. On the day you decide to go get a flex meal from the marketplace during finals week, there will be empty shelves and a cookie left if you’re lucky. The early bird got the worm in this situation and I was left with no snacks and sometimes even no dinner because of the vultures who turned the marketplace upside down.

Learn from my mistakes, happy finals week!