On the week before finals...

"I always dread the week before finals since my sophomore year," says senior Gwen Geever. She's a Business major and while she has only one final during finals week, she has five group presentations this week.

Considering her major, this is no surprise. I know how important it is to have good presentational skills in the business world - my sister is in marketing and there is always an annual presentation she has to do along with the rest of the marketing team. It is a big deal and there's no room for mistakes.

So while the opportunity to practice essential presentation skills is beneficial, Geever finds it hard to schedule meetings with all the groups she is a part of. She works two jobs - 15-20 hours during the week and 25-30 hours during weekends. While she's a resident, most of her group members are commuters. And while she's free in the evening hours, commuters - especially the ones who have to drive far - probably wouldn't want to go back and forth from home to school just to meet in the evening.

I know that if I'm finished with classes for the day and don't have a night class, I'd want to go straight to my room and relax. Who doesn't think that no matter if you're a resident or commuter?

I'm grateful that at least I don't have all of my papers due in one week - some were due last week or the week before. Though I wish all my papers had been due last week so I could have this week more or less free to focus on studies for finals week. I have two presentations as well, but if some people have up to five presentations in one week; then two doesn't look so bad in comparison.

Good luck to everyone as finals week approaches!