No Rest for PSU’s Weary

PLYMOUTH- With the first day of finals now looming just a week away, the scramble to complete all of those end-of semester assignments has officially begun. Unfortunately, students here at PSU may be at a great disadvantage compared to many other colleges in the nation.This is because most colleges allow for a period of reading days, or “dead time,” between the end of classes and the beginning of the designated finals period. In an article for Phoenix online, students at Swarthmore College complained that “our reading period is only two days long, compared with Amherst’s three days and Williams’ four days.” Students were angered that the college hadn’t done “everything within reason to make this time as pleasant and convenient for students as possible.” An article on Volante Online also suggests that “simply put, there needs to be more dead time,” and allows that “by offering several days during the week to prepare for finals, students are able to place more of an emphasis on studying and less on cramming or constructing a mediocre project that will surely miss capturing all of the actual knowledge that the student has gained throughout the semester.”At Carleton College, the student handbook even contains a list of guidelines for both appropriate and inappropriate activities for students during reading days. Appropriate activities include “preparing for a final exam, or working on a term paper or project that is being done in lieu of a final exam.” Inappropriate activities listed are “formal class meeting, exams, having written assignments due, required review sessions, and additional reading assignments.” While it seems that most colleges are so concerned with helping to ease student’s stress levels, PSU senior Colin Mcquillan worries that, “I will be working and attending classes nonstop through this week, and then go right on to my first final early next week, during which time I will still have several final assignments to complete. Having just a couple of days to sort out my thoughts would be extremely helpful.”