Although the most wonderful time of the year is right around the corner, Marshall University students must overcome their most stressful two weeks of college before they can enjoy the winter break.

It is dead week and with finals, graduation, jobs and social stress bearing down on students; they must adapt and prevail.

Each semester students undergo an array of obstacles, but they seem to all pile on during the week before finals. For sophomore biology pre-med student, Alyssa Mills, this week alone she said she has four tests before her finals next week.  Mills also said she is trying to manage working her part time job as well.

“It is very hard,” Mills said. “I think the most stressful thing is the tests before finals week. It doesn’t give me time to study for my actual finals.”

Mills said she suggests more review time for the finals instead of learning new material.

“I wish we could not cover new material right before we are tested comprehensively on everything,” she said.

While students are struggling to manage similar issues this week, the way the cope with the stress may differ.

Allison Aldrich, a junior civil engineering student, said she uses prayer and food to overcome the overwhelming feelings of finals.

“A lot of it is prayer for me,” Aldrich said. “I’ve just been praying over it a lot.”

While working on her lab report, she also said she uses food to find some comfort.

“I’ve been obsessing over buffalo chicken dip from Fat Patty’s,” Aldrich said.

Aldrich also had similar feelings to Mills’ about how to improve the last two weeks of the semester for students.

“I feel like exams shouldn’t be weighted as much,” Aldrich said. “Make them the same as every other exam.”

For first year computer science major Ethan Wills, overcoming the stress of finals is about perspective and mindset.

While preparing for his four upcoming finals Wills said he does his best to mentally block out any overwhelming feelings.

“All stress is self-induced, so if I don’t think about it I’ll be fine,” he said.

Stress has no place in Wills’ mind because it “doesn’t get anything done,” he said.

While stress is not a factor for Wills, other students may disagree.  One thing for certain is that finals week will not be avoided.

Meg Keller can be contacted at [email protected].