It’s finally arrived.

The five-day period known to ISU students as “Dead Week.”

A time of the year when all tests, papers, research projects and presentations should be turned to give us time to recharge for finals.

This week, we should begin studying for the myriad of cumulative tests we have, but if you’ve experienced an ISU Dead Week before, you know this is not the case.

Instead of what should be a lull in the academic process, we find ourselves struggling to finish more projects, papers and presentations than should be considered ethical.

Members of the Editorial Board discussed the mountains of work we had in store for us this week and came to the conclusion the concept of Dead Week is nothing more than a lie.

After almost an entire semester of hard work, the idea of maybe having a week void of any major assignments, then coming to realize the next time you’ll be seeing the inside of you eyelids for more than three hours per night will be Friday, May 7 is a fallacy.

Dead Week is a special time where we have so much to do, we actually forget the fact that next week is indeed finals week.

Soon we’ll have to prepare for even more tests. To forget about major cumulative tests this week is not surprising when we have so much to complete in the next five days.

The promise of summer vacation seems like a distant beacon of hope nearly obscured by term papers and projects. This time of year, it seems like we’ll never get a chance to enjoy warm weather without having to worry about completing three assignments in one week.

We understand that we’re in college and feeling swamped almost constantly is simply de rigueur, but “Dead Week” is a misnomer.

Too many incoming freshman have been faced with the injustice of expecting the week before finals to be a time where they can study without the added bonus of additional projects.

Therefore, it only seems fair we dub the week before finals something other than “Dead Week.”

This more accurate name should accurately describe the level of stress we collectively feel as a student body.

It should describe the number of projects we have due this week.

It should give us reasonable expectations of the amount of work to expect the week before finals.

The more appropriate name for Dead Week should indicate that a reasonable amount of sleep to expect this week is not analogous to the doctor’s recommended amount.

The more appropriate name should indicate that there will be no such thing as a social life for the two weeks before the semester ends; you and all your friends will probably be at the library anyway, where fun and joy are discouraged.

Encompassing all the woes of Dead Week into an accurate title for the week before finals is not easy.

Finding the perfect set of words to accurately describe the feeling of anxiety that comes with turning in three term papers and one project the week before finals is daunting.

So instead of describing this week as “Dead Week,” why don’t we name it something more honest and accurate?

How about “This-Week-Sucks-and-Guess-What? More-Tests-Next-Week Week”?

That seems about right.