At every college around this time of year, there is a special tension across campus. It’s a mixture of excitement for summer vacation and anxiety over finishing final projects and exams. Here at Providence College, all freshmen and sophomores can bond over the unique terror that is associated with Civ Monday. This is a timeline, chronicling the increasing anxiety you’ll feel as the exam date approaches.
Today:
Come on. You haven’t started studying yet. You haven’t even finished the reading and seminar prep for this week. Yes, there is STILL homework to be done.
Friday, May 5th:
The anxiety kicks in. Questions that pop into your head include: Is it too late to withdraw? What is the lowest grade I can receive to still pass? Isn’t it Cinco de Mayo? You might still go out, to ignore your responsibilities and spend some quality time with your Friar fam that you know you’re going to miss this summer. It’s not your best idea, but at this point in the year, you could not care less.
Saturday, May 6th:
You wake up at an unreasonable hour and your day is already half over. While it is technically the weekend, you haven’t touched your Civ notes. You don’t even dare to head for Ruane because you already know every single large classroom is taken by one person or a small group. Yes, it makes you frustrated, but you know you would do the same exact thing. You make your way over to Phillips Memorial Library, into the peaceful “Deep Quiet Zone” only to find that every other underclassmen feels just as underprepared as you are and the section is full. After searching every floor of the library and simultaneously getting in a workout by carrying around all of the semester’s textbooks, you find a spot. You’ve actually started studying, two whole days before the exam! Congratulations. After sitting there for hours, your back starts to hurt from crouching over your notes. Your eyes are strained from staring. Your wrist is cramping from writing and highlighting everything you don’t remember from the semester (which is a lot). On top of all of this, you’re hungry. And while there is nothing better than a pint of Half-Baked ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s, easily accessible from Alumni Hall, you have a FriarBucks balance of $0.00(or at least I do). So, you settle for dinner from Ray and reminisce of home-cooked meals. You finish the night crying into your notes, smudging them, which only makes you cry more.
Sunday, May 7th:
Waking up, you originally feel content, considering you aren’t hungover from the night before. Then you remember you aren’t hungover because you didn’t go out. Wait, why didn’t you go out on a Saturday? Then you REALLY remember.
It’s because you have your hardest exam tomorrow, followed by the rest of your exams throughout the week. You develop the Sunday Scaries, only on steroids. If you see one freshman or sophomore in anything other than sweats, they aren’t studying enough. There is no time to look nice, only time for cramming all the information about western civilization that you can into your brain. Today’s a good day to meet with a group from your lecture, to compare notes and complain about lack of sleep. You use the day to come to terms with the fact that you don’t know nearly as much as you thought you did. Still, physically surviving the year of DWC is something to celebrate, so don’t be too hard on yourself!
While this day is arguably the most stressful of the semester, it’s all worth it at 11 p.m. Late-night breakfast starts in Ray. It’s not necessarily about the food, considering… you know… it’s Ray food, but it’s more about celebrating the fact that we are almost done studying! Even if you don’t feel completely prepared, you can be proud of yourself for surviving the weekend and trying your hardest. If you really don’t feel prepared, use the energy from all that brain-food to power through the rest of your work.
Monday, May 8th:
This is the day. You’ve made it. If you have the exam at 8:30, I am so sorry you don’t have the luxury of the classic morning cram-sesh. Eat a nice big breakfast, so your stomach doesn’t make those horrible noises during the exam. You’ve had exams before, you know the deal: get there early, pee and eat beforehand, the basics. Once that exam starts: KILL IT! You know more than you think. If you’re like me, you’re stuck here until Saturday. So make the most of your time left in Friartown after your DWC final. Then, after enjoying the summer after freshman year, come back to take DWC allllll over again.