Finals are next week, and students are not the only people on campus with high stress levels.
While students think the work they put into finals week is stressful, John Whittaker, philosophy and religious studies department chairman, said teachers face similar problems.
“The week is just as stressful for teachers as it is for students,” Whittaker said.
Whittaker said Dead Week for professors is not simply finals preparation.
“They must figure out how to catch up for the final week and make up final exams and handle students with grade issues,” Whittaker said. “I can guarantee you that students are not alone in being under pressure. Faculty are also under pressure.”
Charlie Egedy, math instructor, said finals week is very busy with making up tests and preparing students for finals.
Egedy said a typical math final takes him about four hours to write, and the grading process takes anywhere from four to eight hours.
He said students are not the only people with final dilemmas.
“When I found out my final exam schedule for this semester, I had three finals scheduled for Saturday,” Egedy said. “So I jokingly asked the chairman of the department if I needed a letter to have one of my finals moved. And since then the problem has been taken care of.”
Richard Nelson, mass communication professor, said the week before finals is pretty hectic.
“First you have to make sure students are prepared for their exams, then I go through a thorough study review with them,” Nelson said.
Nelson said professors have a lot to worry about during Dead Week.
“Professors don’t just teach,” Nelson said. “We also have to provide research and services to students. But right now I am just making sure that I am discussing the material that I will be testing so there are no surprises for the students,”
Nelson said he makes sure there are no surprises on his finals because when he was a student his teachers gave exams that seemed more like punishment than opportunities to succeed.
“I had teachers as a student that just seemed to be unfair and I vowed that if I ever got in a position of power I would not be unfair,”
John Mastrogianakos, assistant professor of Italian and comparative literature, teaches four classes and said the week leading up to exams is quite stressful.
He said preparing the exams, preparing students for the exams and writing exercises in class to show students what they need to study takes up a lot of time.
Mastrogianakos said it takes about four to five hours to write up his finals, and can take anywhere from four to six hours to grade them.
However, his work is not done once he turns in grades.
“I start preparing for next semester immediately after I enter grades,” Mastrogianakos said. “So the whole summer will be spent on preparing the syllabus, getting books ready and reading up on what I have to teach.”