It’s time. The week that determines our academic excellence, the week that our grades rely on, and the week that exhibits quiet classrooms, pensive students, and outstanding performances all within two-hour intervals of stress. It’s finals week.

As the semester passes, most students spend the last few weeks before finals scrambling to finish all their missed work in a final effort to raise the grade that will inevitably be stamped on their report card. But really, what good is it going to do if you can’t ace a looming 200-point final?

While teachers advise students to “go home, sleep, and eat a good breakfast,” they seem to forget about the hours and hours of studying that prevent us from getting the rest required. It doesn’t feel fair that we work so hard on smaller assignments to get booted down a grade as soon as finals come in to play.

The way finals are set up make it so something as little a nerves could ultimately determine your grade. Grades that have been taunting us all semester long come down to the final test and this stress definitely prevents some students from performing their best.

For most juniors, it goes beyond those pivotal two hours spent biting their pencil. These grades have the potential to determine our future: what college we get in to and what job we will get after that.

During finals week there is never only one area of importance, instead we are asked to stretch our minds in various directions to try and do well in all subjects. In some classes, not getting an “easy A” will make you feel pathetic, but even in an AP class, it seems that the grade you want is way too high to reach for. 

Working hard will not guarantee you an A, deep breaths will not be your savior, and nerves are likely to get in the way of your best work. But when it’s over, you won’t be able to help but feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. You pulled through one of the hardest weeks pushed at teenagers without your brain completely dying.

So to all the hardworking students who spent their weekend overwhelmed by flashcards, outline notes, textbooks, late homework, and cram sessions, I leave you with these final words of encouragement: do your best, and the rest will follow.