It is those pending two weeks in between Thanksgiving break and Winter break that hold the most anticipation and anxiety for high school students. Teachers start to speed lectures up to squeeze in what they can before the semester ends and students hastily attempt to raise their grades last minute. It’s not uncommon that students feel the most distress the two weeks leading up to finals week.

However, students shouldn’t stress out as much as they do. Don’t get me wrong. There are valid reasons to be feeling pressured during finals week, but it shouldn’t come to a point where we are staying up 36 hours straight with our eyes glued to our AP physics textbook, just hoping that some knowledge is retained.

As an AP/IB student, I can fully testify that finals can make me feel like the world is ending because that final will decide if  my borderline B+ will stay a B or become an A. A teacher of mine once shared some words of wisdom that has stuck with me ever since. He had talked about how it won’t matter in a few years that we had B’s instead of A’s, but that our understanding and our knowledge was enriched in the four years we were in high school. That has completely changed my perspective on finals.

Instead of frantically cramming  the couple of days before taking that final, take this upcoming week to gradually review what you feel you need to go over. Pace yourself so there’s no last minute rush. But I say this: you are already knowledgeable of the subjects you are taking these finals on. You have been in these courses all year, you’ve done the work, you’ve gone over it in class, so there should be no reason that you feel you would fail (unless you’ve been slacking all year).

Don’t resort to cheating either. There is no grade so important that you have to risk your reputation and credibility. Cheating isn’t only limited to copying answers, but cheating yourself included. Just memorizing material and not internalizing it is stupid. In a few years, you won’t remember that Avogadro’s number is 6.02 x 1023 or that Louis XIV of France was the Sun King. I assure you, none of those memorized facts will profit you in the far future–––unless you get it as a question in Jeopardy.

My point is: don’t freak out. You’ve got this. Finals are a big thing, but in the long run, you’re going to be okay. Your B or C in history, English or math is not the end of the world. The point of being in school isn’t getting straight A’s but gaining knowledge and becoming an educated citizen to make the world a better place. Grow as a person; learn as much as you can and apply it to your life to be the best person that you can be.