Finals: The Real Grinch

While most of America rushes to the malls this time of year, college students are making haste to the library. Peppermint hot chocolate? No thanks. We need something stronger to get us going through our late night cram sessions. Enter that concoction of perfect parts energy and holiday pep — the peppermint mocha (with a few extra shots).

As youngsters, we waited up all night, eagerly anticipating the clip-clop of Santa's reindeer. Now we crowd into libraries or lock ourselves in our rooms, and all we want for Christmas is a high GPA. After all, it's tough to get into the holiday spirit when you are surrounded by piles of books instead of holiday decorations and brightly wrapped gifts.

One of the curses of the American fall semester, which runs from early September to mid December, is that the stress of final exams blots out the brightness of the holiday season. From right before Thanksgiving until as late as December 23, college students must painfully avert their attention from holiday cheer to focus on academics. From personal experience, I must confess that the worst distraction ever is a Christmas song sing-along with your roommates at midnight before next day's 9 a.m. biochemistry final that counts for 30% of your grade.

Fortunately in the American university system, final exams are rarely ever the massive all-or-nothing ordeals they are in other countries. Few classes rely exclusively on a midterm and a final to determine your overall grade. Instead, we typically face two or three rounds of papers and exams. Some professors even get into the holiday spirit. When finals roll around, they only give a non-cumulative final on material from the last exam onward, or they emphasize new material in the point distribution.  But based on the attitudes you see on campus, you might think that finals are a grave matter of life or death.

Dining halls usually offer free coffee to students during finals period, and libraries (now open 24 hours a day) count record attendance. At my university the main 24-hour library is so crowded that the temperature is a toasty 85°F. The weather outside is frightful, but the fire of stress is oh so delightful.

So whether you're swamped in final projects or up late sweating out equations and facts for tomorrow's 9 a.m. final, just know that you're not alone. The end's in sight. That choir of angels you hear in the distance is not heaven — it's the holidays! 

Image credit: Brittany Woods