Your professor has just assigned the last project of the semester: You are to compare and contrast the theories presented in five selected chapters of your textbook.
You suddenly wish you had read the book.
You decide this is not a problem; you've got a few days. You'll just read the book in your spare time between classes.
You relax.
You suddenly wish you had bought the book.
Welcome to Finals Week.
Truly, mid-December is an odd time at Ball State University, and you'll notice several peculiar things. Strange new students will appear in your classes on days when they have to turn assignments in. Friends will unexpectedly turn down invitations to party in the Village on a perfectly good Wednesday night. There will be students in Bracken Library.
All too often, finals can make or break a whole semester's effort - or lack thereof.
Some students will transform into robots, cranking out papers and studying for exams mechanically and exhaustively with all the efficiency and power of Optimus Prime. Others will blow off finals entirely, insisting grades don't matter much in the grand scheme of things.
"It's not what you know, but who you know," they'll assert - with a small grain of truth.
No, having a high grade point average will not guarantee you a good job all by itself, but don't fall victim to the myth that decent grades aren't important. When you work hard to get good grades, you are developing the essential skills that employers are most looking for in new hires.
According to Bill Coplin, author of "10 Things Employers Want You to Learn in College," the most important thing your future boss wants you to develop is work ethic - including self-motivation and time management. Finals Week is the perfect time to improve all three, and the process will arm you for interviews.
For example, when you're asked to give an example of when you effectively budgeted your time, you can proudly recount how you reserved several hours to study for each of five finals while balancing a part-time job and attending class. You got good grades on all the tests, and you know you can use the same time management strategies to be successful in the workplace.
This answer will impress the interviewers far more than telling them about the time you scheduled precise bathroom and meal breaks in order to beat Halo 2 twice in the same day.
Regardless, if you're having trouble motivating yourself to take finals seriously or feeling desperate about a specific test or assignment, realize the university's Learning Center provides several services so you don't have to tackle Finals Week alone. Pressure-free tutoring is available for many core curriculum, math, physics, economics and accounting courses as well as for all writing assignments.
Many of the peer tutors at the Learning Center have been successful in the exact same classes you are taking now. I've worked at the Learning Center Writing Desk for 3 years, and you'll be surprised how much peace of mind can be obtained simply by asking questions and going through your rough draft or final edit with somebody else.
Not sure of the differences among MLA, APA and PDA? Make the call. The Learning Center Writing Desk can be reached at 285-3778, and the tutors accept both appointments and walk-ins - but during Finals Week, appoints fill up fast, so make the call soon.
Now get fired up. Take control of your learning process. You are Captain Picard and your Finals Week destiny is the Enterprise - so order La Forge to take her to warp speed. If you give Finals Week your hand-to-God best, nobody can ask anything more of you.
Good luck: We're all in this together.
Write to Brian at bggorrell@bsu.edu
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