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The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FIU chapter.

I know I’m not the only one who dreads final season every semester. 

With back to back exams, papers, and projects, I can’t catch a break within the final four weeks of the semester, and all I can think is “what’s the point?” Not only am I already burnt out from the semester, but now finals are here and I need to find time to study in between classes, completing assignments, and work. 

The most common (and worst) type of final we come across are exams.

This is especially true when it comes to cumulative exams that require students to remember months worth of material and regurgitate it in a span of an hour. It leaves students in a position to study every piece of material and lecture notes from the beginning of the semester and hope it’ll be on the exam… and there’s always that one thing you didn’t study for that ends up making up a huge chunk of the test.

And the cherry on top? Your grade depends on this final. I always find myself on Canva using the “what-if” feature to see what the minimum I need to get to keep my grade in the class that I spent months working for is. 

Then there are research papers. 

These papers can be easier than an exam until they are 15 pages long and professors require 20 different scholarly articles that need to be peer-reviewed. As an English major who wants to write for a living, I have a hate-love relationship with final papers. 

Yes, it’s easier than an exam (in my opinion), but the plethora of requirements always seem unnecessary. At some point in the paper, I’m writing gibberish just to meet a word count.

If I’m lucky enough, a professor decides to have us do a final project instead.

Projects are arguably the easiest final we can get. There is a bit more leniency and creativity allowed in comparison to exams and papers, but there’s always a catch. Sometimes this is a 800 word writing portion to go alongside the 20 slide Power Point, or you have to memorize a 10 minute presentation with no notes. 

Either way, no matter what type of final we get, it’s never easy, and because all these finals are crammed together in the same four weeks, burnout is unavoidable. All I know is that every semester I cross my fingers and hope for the best (also known as a high C).

Heidi Cuevas is a first-year chapter member at Her Campus at the Florida international University chapter. She writes about beauty, mental and physical wellness, and advocates for gender equality as well as women rights. Beyond Her Campus, Heidi is the Opinion Director for PantherNOW, an independent students newspaper at FIU. She is also a junior at Florida International University majoring in English and pursing two certificates, one in Women’s and Gender studies and another in Law, Ethics, and Society. In her free time, Heidi reads mystery novels, listens to music, binge watches crime shows, and crocheting. She has a pen and notepad in hand everywhere she goes just in case a new idea comes along.