Test Anxiety Creeps in as HutchCC Students Prepare for Finals

By Kaleb Moore
Staff writer
IG: @kalebmoore05

As the calendar flips over to December, there is a feeling of anxiety that can be felt deep in the bowels of every college student. Next week, students will enter the belly of the beast and take on their mortal enemy – finals.

During the final week of the fall semester, professors across the Hutchinson Community College campus will be holding their final exams. The stakes are high, as most finals are heavily weighted toward the final grade of most people.

Finals week (or “Hell Week” to some), is taken seriously. In the dorms, quiet hours are enacted to help students get better sleep and study easier. Students stress over the material they’ve learned over the past few months. All of a sudden, the final grade calculator becomes the most important tool in everyone’s life.

A fun component of the finals time of the year are all the different methods people use to study for their tests. Most people are in the same boat as HutchCC sophomore Addie Hayes, who’s method is to “grab a Red Bull, and I study for 30 minutes on, 5 minutes off for about 2-3 hours.”

The go-getters in life tend to make more of an effort to get their material memorized. A well constructed schedule with the priorities laid out and a neat study guide has been found to be the most effective method to prepare for a final.

However, some students just don’t have the time, energy, or even the desire to study too hard. Another common strategy is to simply cram.

Freshman Gage Grossman said that he will simply “wait until the last minute and then look at your notes for three seconds.”

Whether cramming or planning out a study time is a more useful method, nothing comes close to doing the test in person. There are steps that should be taken to ensure success no matter what level of studying has been accomplished.

Per an article in the Princeton Review, there are eight key components to acing an exam: Easy to follow notes if allowed, a charged calculator for math and science, studying the textbook before you leave, consuming a balanced breakfast, staying hydrated before and during the test, making sure your supplies are right, giving yourself an internal pep talk before you go into the classroom, and having a mantra that will keep you focused on the task at hand.

Doing all of those tasks can be really hard and take a lot of calm energy that, frankly, few people have before taking a huge test. The best and easiest advice would be to stay calm and remember that no matter what, the sun is going to come up tomorrow. Regardless of what happens during the exam, you will walk out of the classroom in one piece.

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