By Jonathan Smith, Student Reporter

Preparing for next week’s exams, many students are stressed about the amount of studying they will have to do over the next few days.

Some, however, look forward to finals week as opposed to a regular week of class.

“I would say that exam week is probably almost easier because all the work is done and the studying should be done,” said Justin Scott, freshman political science major from Whitehouse. “Of course if you haven’t done the work or the studying then it will probably be a lot more stressful.”

Students plan to use several different study methods to get ready for finals.

“What I’m going to do is not try to study all the subjects on one day,” Scott said. “I’m going to devote one day for each subject leading up to finals so I don’t cram it all in right before the test.”

While some prefer to spend extra time studying for exams, several students do not plan to do anything different than they would for normal tests.

“I’m not too worried because most of my finals aren’t going to be that much different from normal tests, so I don’t plan on studying that much more than I would for a normal test,” said freshman Jeremy Webb, freshman youth and family ministry major from Austin.

Some students do worry about having too many exams on one day.

Students who are scheduled to have three or four exams on one day may petition to take one of the exams at a later time.

“We really try to work with those students, but we try to work it so they can take one of those exams later, not earlier,” said Dr. Colleen Durrington, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Because students may leave once they are finished taking exams, some wish they could take their later exams earlier in the week. Durrington said this is not an option.

“Several years ago, the deans’ council, all the deans in the university and the provost decided that we would not give exams early,” she said.

In certain emergency situations, students can be allowed to take an exam late, even after they return in January.

“We don’t want students thinking anyone can just take their exams in January,” Durrington said, “but in case of an emergency or extenuating circumstances students can partition to the dean’s office to take an exam late.”

The no early exams policy, Durrington said, exists to keep things fair for all students and teachers as well.

“Some professors who have maybe four exams to give don’t have their exams ready several days early to give,” Durrington said. “It also is really not fair to those students who stick around for those exams.”