Welcome back everyone!
Last week was my school’s finals week (I know, I know- we’re kind of late to the party), and now that my first semester of sophomore year is over I wanted to reflect on how the infamous stress of finals went this year, how it compared to freshman year finals, and how it was in general. I know it’s very intimidating and I definitely get stressed about big tests no matter what, but I think it’s important to realize that no matter how big a test is, it’s still just a test. If you want to hear more about my most recent finals experience is, keep on reading!
Honestly, the main point I have is pretty cliché, but it’s to not blow things out of proportion because things will pass over faster than you think. As a person who gets easily stressed and has a lot on her plate, there are many things I’m worried about doing or getting done daily. As a result of my constant business, I’ve realized that time goes by really fast, and soon enough everything’s over- whether good or bad. I was freaking out about finals as one would the week leading up to them and this past week, but they came and went so fast, and it ended up being fine.
Sure, a few tears were shed and many hours were spent poring over books, but it turned out fine. And even if it hadn’t, it still would’ve been over with and I could move on with my life. Time has been FLYING by lately, and it’s really teaching me not to get hung up on any singular event, because soon enough it will be gone and done! I don’t know if it’s a positive or negative perspective- when it comes to things I’m dreading like finals, I guess it’s positive that I realize they’ll be over with, but when it’s things I’m looking forward to, it can feel like I’m wishing them away before they’re over.
To focus more specifically on my finals, I’ll give a breakdown of how it goes at my school. We have three days of block schedule, with two classes each day (3 classes on the first day if you take a 7th period). This means you only have two finals each day, or less if you don’t take all academic classes or you don’t have finals in some classes. I personally had my English and Spanish finals on day 1, no finals on day 2 (yearbook and chemistry which we took a final in early), and AP Euro and math finals on day 3. First semester finals are always Tuesday-Thursday and we get Friday off for a long-weekend refresher before the next semester.
The way my finals were broken up this year was both stressful and nice at the same time. Having the day in between to focus on studying was helpful, but it also was a very stress-inducing day since Euro and math were the finals I was most scared for. That being said, I think the full day of study time paid off, considering those were actually the two finals I did best on. I had very structured study plans for them, whereas I just kind of went over notes, studied the textbooks, used Quizlets, and winged it a little bit for English and Spanish. Either way, I actually got solid As on all my finals and was able to end the semester with grades I am proud of, so I’m happy and super proud of myself for powering through the stress.
In comparison to freshman year finals, this semester was way more difficult. I was expecting that since my classes this year have been much more difficult so far. A lot of my teachers last year went easy on us and didn’t give us real “finals,” so we just had our unit tests or a slightly bigger chapter test that was worth a little more points. I only had three finals total, and they were spread out evenly among the three days. This year, it actually felt more like finals week and how I originally imagined it before going into finals last year.
Finals are rough for everyone, but as I’ve mentioned, it’s important to know that they’re really not the end-all-be-all- nothing in school is. I’m assuming most people’s finals are over by know, so I hope you all are happy with how you performed last semester! If you’re not, now you have a fresh start ahead of you. If you haven’t had finals yet, good luck! I believe in you 🙂
Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 