Between last-minute cramming for exams and rushing to get big projects in on time, some students cannot find enough time to sleep, let alone think about who else gets stressed out due to finals.

Professors, instructors and teaching assistants also are heading into crunch time, with the pressures of teaching several classes, giving exams and handing out final grades.

Larry Bradshaw, assistant professor of industrial education and technology, has three classes with a total of 60 students. His final exams are broken up into three sections: the standard multiple choice exam, a lab equipment component to ensure students are familiar with the tools of their trade and a simulation software package.

Bradshaw has one graduate assistant to help with some of the work, but the rest is all his responsibility.

What many are not aware of is that in addition to teaching classes and grading final exams, the end of the semester is often the time grad students need the most attention as well. On top of final exams, professors are often required to meet with their graduate students before they begin their final orals.

But Bradshaw said the most difficult part of the job is the uncertainty a professor may feel when handing out final grades.

“The hardest part of the entire week is actually putting down grades for students and wondering if you’ve made a mistake,” he said. “You don’t want to discourage anybody who doesn’t need to be discouraged. You put out grades, and you get a person whose got a ‘complaining personality.’ You don’t care for that. Anybody can make a mistake, but you don’t want to get that complainer.”

Michael Bishop, chairman of the philosophy and religious studies department, currently isn’t teaching any courses, but he remembers how stressed students can come out of the woodwork during finals week.

“You do have students coming quite a bit to talk about the material and to talk about how well they’re doing,” he said. “The one recommendation I make is they should come in and talk about the material before the last week of class.”

Bishop agreed that finals week also is taxing for faculty members.

“For me, at least, starting at the beginning of finals week, it’s much full-time, plus we’re helping students get prepared, and then the grading takes a lot of time; you have various deadlines,” he said.

“It tends to be a quite difficult time for professors,” Bishop said. “Often they’re on very tight schedules.”

Gerald Small, distinguished professor, teaches a course for graduate students who are majoring in physical chemistry. He has 12 students in his class.

Small said along with his students, who are busy working on Ph.D. dissertations, he also has his own challenges.

“I have grants and research,” he said. “I don’t find the pressures of teaching comparable.”