Finals week pressure takes toll on everyone
Students not only
ones under stress
By Amie Haggar
Staff Reporter
Late-night study sessions, caffeine overdos
es and no sleep become habit for many UNL
students during dead week and finals week.
But the increased workload and stress stu
dents face also is encountered by many UNL
professors.
“Reality strikes for everyone at the end of
the semester,” Michael Stricklin, a UNL news
editorial professor, said.
Robert Bergstrom, UNL associate professor
of English, said his workload increased signif
icantly during dead week and finals week.
At the beginning of dead week, Bergstrom
said 36 students in his literature classes submit
12-page final papers, which he tries to return
before the week is over.
In his freshmen composition classes, stu
dents polish all of their work from the semester
and expect to receive feedback on it, Bergstrom
said.
“It’s not like a job you can get through
quickly, like shoveling or raking leaves,” he
said. “TTiese papers are people’s human prod
ucts, and they deserve to be treated with re
spect, dignity and concentration so that every
one receives the best feedback.”
Stricklin said he had 103 students who sub
mitted papers and essay tests during the final
weeks of the semester, but he said he prepared
himself for the added work.
“I know I have to dedicate time to this; it’s
not a surprise,” he said.
“I think about the expectations and quality
standards I have for the students,” he said. “I
also think about where they are in the course.”
Richard Boohar, UNL chief adviser and
associate professor of biology, said aside from
correcting more papers and tests, he had to deal
with a rush of students and staff. Students, who
have shown little interest in his class so far,
venture into his office with questions about
their final grades, he said.
Unlike most professors, Stricklin, who once
worked for a newspaper, said the added stress
wasn’t a problem.
“I’ve always liked deadlines; I like that kind
of stress.”
Boohar’s feelings about the last two weeks
of the semester were just the opposite.
Bergstrom said he had to alter his daily
routine during the last weeks of the semester.
“I don’t talk to my family as much,” he said.
“I’m really sort of a workaholic anyway, but I
become more of a hermit.”
Bergstrom said he reminded himself the
additional work would not last forever.
“I look forward to the rewards of hard work
by thinking the tension will soon release,” he
said.
Simple strategies
help ease anxiety
By Rebecca Oltmans
Staff Reporter _
For the majority of students, studying for
finals takes precedence over food, sleep and
even showers.
But Sue Bukacek, counseling psychologist
at the University Health Center, said when
students gave up normal activities and relax
ation techniques, it only added to their stress.
Students’ stress peaks while studying and
during exams. Keeping up with assignments
during the semester is the key to avoiding stress
during finals week, Bukacek said.
But if students haven’t done that, other
strategies can be used to reduce stress, she said.
Drinking soda pop and coffee to stay awake
is the number one mistake students make,
Bukacek said.
“It doesn’t keep you awake,” Bukacek said,
“it just makes you sleep restlessly.”
Although caffeine does stimulate the ner
vous system, it makes people jittery and exag
gerates stress, Bukacek said.
Instead of breaking the work load down into
small pieces they feasibly can do at one time,
Bukacek said, students become overwhelmed
by considering all the work at once.
Sometimes reducing stress is as easy as
breathing in and out. Cramming creates ten
sion, and students often take short, shallow
breaths as they study.
“Take a minute to slow down and take deep,
rhythmic breaths,” Bukacek said. “That will
reduce tension and bring the focus back to
taking care of the business in front of you.”
Stress during test taking is normal for most
students, but for some it escalates to the point
of anxiety, said Mike Coplen, graduate assis
tant at the Academic Success Center.
Students are most stressed at the beginning
of the test, he said. The more questions they see
that they don’t know the answer to, he said, the
more stressed out they become.
“That makes things worse, because stress
takes up part of the information processing
abilities of the brain,” Coplen said.
Students should go through the test and
answer the questions they know first to make
the experience less overwhelming, Coplen said.
They also should check answers, especially the
first four or five, to catch mistakes caused by
stress.
For students with test anxiety, testing rooms
themselves can be stressful.
Students can condition themselves against
this by studying in an environment similar to
the testing room or by studying in the testing
room itself, Coplen said. This stress-reducing
method helps students focus on the material,
not the surroundings.
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