By Brittney Bruner And Heather White

Though students at the University of Louisville run the gamut of backgrounds and fields of study, the one common thread they all share is final exams and papers. As the fall semester creeps to a close, students across campus are eager to close the book on the Fall 2008 semester. Before they can do so, however, they will have to somehow endure those first two weeks of December that demand their full attention, energy and discipline.
 For computer science graduate Mark Woodcock, recalling his days as an undergraduate during finals week is just a sip of coffee and a bite of warm breakfast away. 
“I kept a monastic schedule during finals,” said Woodcock, who transferred to U of L from Allegheny College. “A lot of people who want to study stay up really late, sleep in until right before their class, and get up tired and take their exam after being awake studying all night.”
Woodcock elects to take the opposite approach.
“What I do is go to bed really early, like when the sun sets and I get up around 5 am and study for 3 to 4 hours,” said Woodcock. “I’m awake and alert, I’ve had breakfast and the material is fresh in my mind.”
According to Stan Frager, associate professor at the Kent School of Social Work in Stress Management, sleep is a key element for students during finals week.
“Short term memory is enhanced during sleep,” said Frager, who suggests that students avoid sleeping pills which impair their short term memory and instead develop good circadian rhythms.
“I had a friend who would keep coffee running all the time and sleep around 3 hours a night,” said Woodcock. “He was a maniac; maybe some people can do that, but not me.”
Frager also cites procrastination as a major problem for students during finals as well. 
“[Students] are overloaded and if you don’t manage your time well, you are going to have a difficult time doing well on tests,” said Frager.
Dr. Richard Fee, professor of Stress Management and Practical Skills, shares the same sentiment of how students can get backed up and then overwhelmed with obligations: “Everything happens at once for them.”
Ashley Williams, a sophomore nursing major, tries to avoid the perils of procrastination by planning ahead and adhering to a regular schedule.
“I study little parts at a time a few days before and then the day before I review everything,” said Williams. “I make sure I have time to take breaks or I lose concentration.”
While managing time is vital for students to survive the last couple weeks of each semester, being able to cope and adapt to stress is also key to their success.
“Stress is very physical,” said Frager. “All stressful events are physical, mental, or emotional and all reactions will be physical, mental, or emotional.  Nothing in or of itself can cause stress. It has more to do with our ability to adapt and deal with it.”
According to a 2008 report from the American College Health Association in their National College Health Assessment, which analyzed health of the U of L campus community, two of the top three factors affecting individual academic performance, included both sleep difficulties and large amounts of stress.
Stress was the top factor with 41.9 percent, followed by cold symptoms at 32.3 percent and sleep difficulties at 31.5 percent. Although 59.1 percent of all students said they were in very good health, almost 6.6 percent complained of experiencing repetitive stress injury during the school year.
Some students, such as sophomore Spanish major Brett McGrath, have done what they can to relieve this stress.  According to McGrath, who is involved with a “Finals Potluck” presented by the Spanish Club next week, events such as this one offer great opportunities to take a break from the many papers and tests students are studying for and socialize a little. 
“Things like this are needed.  I have several papers to write and final tests to study for,” said McGrath. “Then with Christmas shopping, packing for travels, everything just kind of comes together and it’s just run, run, run. Stress can get to you.”
For some, simply finding a quite place is all it takes to get relaxed and focused. 
According to Woodcock, students at Allegheny would literally live inside the library during finals week. 
“People would camp in the library,” said Woodcock. “They would eat microwave soup out of plastic cups, and would only go home to shower and sleep but would leave their things there.  They would literally move in for a week or two.”
Although U of L student enrollment in 2007-2008 was 21,689 with 16,061 as full-time students, Woodcock thinks that, due to a large commuter student population, resources at U of L are not being utilized to their full potential.
 “One of the big things is that the buildings at U of L are empty, whereas at Allegheny the buildings had people in them all the time, studying out in the open,” said Woodcock. “The campus at Allegheny basically would shut down during Finals Week, where almost all the students were full time undergrads. At U of L, there’s a lot more graduate and part time students where they don’t have as many exams crammed in the same week. The finals at U of L don’t seem as momentous, but I think this has a lot to do with the variety of the student body.”
However, with the recent move to keep Ekstrom Library open to students 24 hours a day for the entire month of December, the resources at U of L may very well see an increase in activity.
And while students may turn to different sources of strength to get them through the barrage of examinations and papers, it seems to be a universally accepted aspect of college life that students endure by whatever means necessary.