2008 Woodie Awards
PUC needs a 'Dead Week'
Issue date: 12/11/06 Section: Opinion
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If we were students at Purdue's main campus, last week would have been a respite from academia as we observed dead week. According to purdue.edu, "the final examination period is intended for the end-of-semester examination. No examination or quiz may be given during the week (three days in summer session) preceding the final examination period of the semester (examinations for laboratory, intensive, or mini-courses excluded).
It will be the responsibility of the department head, or where appropriate the school head, to ensure that none of the departmental or school faculty uses the week (three days in summer session) preceding the final examination period to administer an examination." In other words, according to the university rules, none of us would have had a test last week.
We are not asking for the university to give us academic hand-outs. But a week where we are test free, so that we can study for final exams is a welcome idea. We would be able to rest, study and fully prepare for finals with significantly less stress.
A week to study for finals is a reasonable time frame- as opposed to merely a weekend off in order to cram as much as possible.
It seems like at PUC we have the opposite of dead week. We have, instead, a week where seemingly every class has a project, paper or exam due. In the "real world" we will have deadlines and responsibilities. If college is supposed to prepare us for the "real world" then it is understandable that we are given large amounts of work and are expected to work for what we get- grades or otherwise. But we deserve a reasonable amount of time to study and prepare for tests that will likely be a large percentage of our grades.
With the current system, sometimes there simply aren't enough hours in the day to study for tests, especially finals. In some classes, instructors ask that students study between ten and twenty hours for a test. This would be fine, if the student didn't work, have a family or have any other classes. To ask a student to set aside a block of time that large is unreasonable and unrealistic. It isn't laziness- many students simply do not have that kind of time on their hands, even if they do forgo sleep to study.
It will be the responsibility of the department head, or where appropriate the school head, to ensure that none of the departmental or school faculty uses the week (three days in summer session) preceding the final examination period to administer an examination." In other words, according to the university rules, none of us would have had a test last week.
We are not asking for the university to give us academic hand-outs. But a week where we are test free, so that we can study for final exams is a welcome idea. We would be able to rest, study and fully prepare for finals with significantly less stress.
A week to study for finals is a reasonable time frame- as opposed to merely a weekend off in order to cram as much as possible.
It seems like at PUC we have the opposite of dead week. We have, instead, a week where seemingly every class has a project, paper or exam due. In the "real world" we will have deadlines and responsibilities. If college is supposed to prepare us for the "real world" then it is understandable that we are given large amounts of work and are expected to work for what we get- grades or otherwise. But we deserve a reasonable amount of time to study and prepare for tests that will likely be a large percentage of our grades.
With the current system, sometimes there simply aren't enough hours in the day to study for tests, especially finals. In some classes, instructors ask that students study between ten and twenty hours for a test. This would be fine, if the student didn't work, have a family or have any other classes. To ask a student to set aside a block of time that large is unreasonable and unrealistic. It isn't laziness- many students simply do not have that kind of time on their hands, even if they do forgo sleep to study.
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