After a three-semester hiatus from in-person exams, LSU students are preparing to return to the stressful environment of proctored testing in Himes Hall.
Many students, like psychology sophomore Daniel Powell, who arrived at the university in 2020 or early 2021 have likely only ever known online exams.
“There are a lot of students, including myself, that have spent their entire college experience thus far taking online exams or asynchronous exams,” Powell said. “It is much easier to have a due date and do exams on my own time than it is to have a set date for an in-person exam, and it feels like I’m being deprived of valuable time that could be spent elsewhere.”
Like many students, Powell is dreading the stressful test-taking environment in Himes Hall. “The most stressful part for me will likely be the abrupt return to a dead-silent room for final exams,” he said.
Accounting junior Hayden Distefano said he’s moderately excited to return to campus to take his final exams.
“I’m just about as eager for it as one can be for final exams,” Distefano said. “I don’t see myself facing any difficulties, as I have been taking on-campus exams this entire semester.”
One concern he raised was trying to remain in good health throughout the entirety of finals week.
“Nobody wants to deal with being sick during finals week or while trying to study,” Distefano said. “It’s unfortunate that we are facing, or feel we are facing, a high likelihood of contracting some illness. Whether that be COVID-19, influenza, a stomach bug or whatever.”
Digital advertising senior Joshua Garibaldi said he would prefer to take his exams online.
“I’m not fond of taking them in-person because I feel more relaxed and focused at home,” Garibaldi said. “I’m kind of nervous, and I approached this year differently from last year with more discipline because most of the classes are in-person.”
Political communication senior Bryce Billiot plans on studying ahead of time, saying he’s a bit nervous about taking in-person exams again.
“I will need to study ahead of time a little more than I have in the past couple years and things should go well,” Billiot said.
Computer science sophomore Saugat Ghimire isn’t too excited about the return of in-person exams, he said, because he feels like his professors have been rushing too much material the past couple of weeks.
Like Powell, Ghimire said it will take some time getting used to the new testing set up.
“I think the hardest part about in-person exams will be adjusting to the environment,” Ghimire said. “I’ve gotten so used to taking exams at home. I think in-person exams are going to be more stressful.”
