As the spring semester comes to a close, preparations for finals—whether exams, projects, or essays—ramp up. In general, students seem to have mixed feelings about finals. Right now, they are also all at different stages of preparing for them.

Student Sonja Bankman said that she prefers final exams over final projects.

“[I feel] fine,” said Bankman. “I have nothing to do … last semester, I had a bunch of final projects due, but now I’ve done everything.”

Despite feeling at ease, Bankman is still preparing for her exams. “[I am] creating documents with key terms that I need to know, especially for scientific subjects,” she said. “And then for writing subjects I’m not studying.”

Bankman said she is studying the most for psychology, as it has many terms she needs to know. She also said that she has learned over time to start studying earlier, because it is easier for her.

“Forcing myself to do the work [is challenging],” said Bankman. “Because honestly, most of it is really boring.”

Bankman said her goals for finals are to make A’s on everything. 

“I’m pretty confident in most things,” she said.

For people who may be struggling to prepare for finals themselves, Bankman has one thing to say: “Stop procrastinating, because it’s going to kill you,” she said. 

Princess Piamah-Assin, another student, felt a little less prepared.

“I need to study a little bit more,” Piamah-Assin said. “I finished up some of my final presentations, but there is still a home stretch going forward for next week.”

Unlike Bankman, Piamah-Assin said she preferred final projects over final essays. 

“I feel like it gives me more time to show off all of my skills instead of just how I’m feeling on one day when I show up and write an hour-long exam,” she said.

Piamah-Assin said that for creative writing, she is currently building her portfolio. For other final projects, she is making slide shows. 

“For studying, [I’m] going through textbook questions and making sure I know how to do everything,” Piamah-Assin said.

Piamah-Assin said she is most focused on physics because she’s “scared. I’m terrified.”

Piamah-Assin said that her study habits have become worse compared to before, because she has “less of a sense of urgency.” However, she acknowledged that past semesters have taught her to start earlier and try to understand all of the content.

“One thing I’ve learned is panicking doesn’t help,” she said. “So don’t panic. Just do your best … There’s no point of stressing. It’ll be fine.”

Piamah-Assin said the most challenging part of preparing for finals is not knowing if she is doing enough.

Like Bankman, Piamah-Assin said that her goal for finals is to get all A’s. But unlike Bankman, she said she does not feel prepared.

“I feel like I still have so much to do,” Piamah-Assin said.

Piamah-Assin said that she would tell other students preparing for exams to “speak to your professors, go to office hours [and] make sure you understand everything … And take a breather, because it’ll be okay.”