Midterms and finals are equally stressful, but it is difficult to determine which one is more challenging.

Let’s talk about midterms, first. They seem easier, but are they really?  Yes, midterms aren’t as much of your grade as finals are and they are only one half of class, while finals are the entirety of a semester crammed into one test.  For those who don’t enjoy taking tests, there is still hope  since midterms are not always tests.  It could be an essay or perhaps a take-home assignment.  

For those who are incredibly lucky, not all teachers require a midterm and while it usually means more stress for the final, it’s one less test to worry about.   Midterms are still very stressful, however.  You only have one class period to complete the test, and some midterms can have 80 or more questions.  That’s less than a minute for each question.  

The tutoring  centers, such as the Writing Center, Math Lab and Language Learning Center, always seem to be booked when midterms come because everybody has the same idea to go see them for help.  Walk-ins must wait in very long lines to try and see someone.   The stress doesn’t end there.  When the midterm is over, the class still has you locked in its clutches.  There is still another half of a class to survive, as well as other tests and papers to complete.

On that note, that’s one of the nicest things about finals.  When you take the final, that means you never have to go back to that class.  The semester is over and you can finally take a break from school, whether for the holidays or for summer.  Another thing is the possibility of “cheat sheets.”   Some incredible teachers  allow  notes  during the final to help their students succeed.  I promise you teachers, we will always be grateful for those few notes on that scrap of paper because it can hold the one  thing we cannot remember.  

With finals you have much more time to take the test compared to midterms so you can spend more time on the questions instead of racing through them.

I think the best part of finals at Cal State San Marcos, however is the stress relief dogs.  In these past few years, the university staff has hired these dogs that sit there and wag their tails as we pet them.   Research shows that therapy dogs  decrease stress and help calm us down, which allows us to focus on the test   Stress is a major factor with finals and how much we hate them.  We stress about our grades, we stress about how much the test is worth, we stress about the test itself.  Plus, scheduling is a mess.  You can have a final at 7 a.m. when the class is usually at 1 p.m.  

Finals are also often a big part of our grade.  One test could be 20, or close to 40 percent of our grade.  But I think the worst part about finals is how we have to cram an entire semester into our brains, as the test is not guaranteed to only cover the other half of the semester that the midterm didn’t cover.

Which do you think is worst?