Prep week looks different for each major and each individual student. Some have finals during prep week, some are still working on newly learned material and some still have classes.
Grace Sneden, a junior in graphic design, said most of her final projects are due this week.
“I don’t really have anything due during finals week,” Sneden said. “So this is kind of like my finals week.”
Sneden said she likes the way her finals are all due prep week.
“A lot of my finals are due this week, but then if my professors feel they need to be extended, they can push it off into finals week, which is really nice,” Sneden said. “So I kind of like having set up where all my projects are due prep week, and then if my professor feels it’s right to push things to finals week, we have, like, an extra week to kind of gap that.”
Still, Sneden did think that Iowa State could implement something to make prep week easier on students.
“I feel like maybe only thing that I could think for Iowa State to do is during prep week, maybe have their professors have more office hours during this week to just go in and, like, talk to them about finishing up projects,” Sneden said.
Abi Kinney, a junior in animal science, said this week consists of a lot of studying for her.
“I’m going to [supplemental instruction] a lot and help rooms after hours with my teachers, if possible,” Kinney said.
Kinney said she wishes prep week was more of a break from classes.
“I just feel like sometimes our professors still expect us to go to class even while we’re trying to prepare for exams,” Kinney said. “I just wish that some of us could get a little bit more time to study and prepare ourselves than a lot of times we do end up getting to but I do feel, in general, as like a whole, the campus does a pretty good job about just providing us resources and opportunities to get stuff done.”
Kinney said she feels like prep week depends on the major, but for her, it feels like a normal week.
“At least for me, most of my classes are still being held,” Kinney said.
Furthermore, Kinney said she feels like her professors do a pretty good job of preparing students for finals.
Similarly, Maurissa Higgins, a senior in physics, said some professors use prep week to review but she feels like a surprising amount of professors don’t review during prep week.
“They’ll still try to introduce new material, either during prep week, or they’ll introduce material that won’t be on the exam,” Higgins said. “But I’d rather they focus more on the material that’s going to be on the final and like, help us review.”
Higgins said she used to be more stressed during her first or second year at Iowa State but the past few semesters prep week doesn’t stress her out.
“I’m usually more stressed at midterms than finals,” Higgins said. “That’s because I’m more comfortable where I’m at in the class for finals coming up.
Higgins mentioned that she doesn’t take enough advantage of the things Iowa State does for finals.
“I feel like they do more during the spring semester than the fall, but I know they usually have, like, the stress dogs in the library, so I feel like as a college, Iowa State does okay,” Higgins said.
Kinney gave a piece of advice for prep week and finals week.
“Just try and relax as much as possible, like it’s school, but it’s not going to be the end of our lives if something doesn’t go right,” Kinney said.
