Gatton students deal with the stress of finals

Carrollton Gatton senior Linda Cruz has four tests, a presentation and a paper all due on “hell week,” the colloquial Gatton term for the week before finals. This year, hell week brings her more work than finals week, where she will just study for tests.

Trey Crumbie

As finals week approaches, many students at WKU are not only preparing for finals, but preparing for the stress that comes with it too. However, WKU students are not the only ones who experience this. Students at The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science share their pain as well.

Gatton Academy is a high school located on WKU’s campus that is home to several bright students.

Gatton senior Linda Cruz, of Carrollton, has three finals next week.

Cruz said she is particularly stressed about her multivariable calculus final because she is on the border between an A and a B.

“I want to get a 4.0 this semester,” the-18-year-old said. “It’ll just depend how much work I put into it.”

Cruz said because of the workload, you have to make an effort.

“It’s definitely a lot more stressful than regular high school finals,” Cruz said. “You actually have to try and put in work. You can’t expect to learn all of the material last minute.”

Cruz said last year was more stressful for her when it came to finals.

“I didn’t exactly know how to cope with stress,” Cruz said. “My study habits have definitely improved over the last year.”

Cruz said she plans to hang out with her friends before they graduate after finals.

“It’ll definitely be a little bittersweet.”

Gatton senior Lara Van Der Heiden, of Carlisle, has four finals next week.

Van Der Heiden said except for her two most important finals that will occur at the end of next week, she is not really stressed.

“I’ve already done it three times before,” she said.

Van Der Heiden said she copes with stress in multiple ways by listening to music or unwinding with her friends.

“Usually the best way to help me get unstressed is just studying more and to make sure that I know the material and feel confident about it,” Van Der Heiden said.

Van Der Heiden said it’s different being a student at Gatton and dealing with finals.

“My friends from back home; they don’t really have finals,” Van Der Heiden said. “I’m to the point now, I guess, where I don’t feel like I’m being treated differently. I just feel like I am a WKU student and that it’s not unusual for me to take finals.”

Gatton senior Adrian Gregory, of Taylorsville, has two finals this week and four finals next week.

Gregory said she is primarily stressed about her physics final.

“I think mainly just because that’s the only class that I’m not doing super well in,” she said.

Gregory said two of her finals aren’t cumulative and that has helped her deal with stress.

“I only have to focus on a couple of chapters,” Gregory said.

She said she copes with stress by exercising a couple times of week and talking to her parents.

“Just kind of verbalizing the fact that I’m stressed helps,” she said.

Gregory said she can’t complain about being stressed for finals.

“I challenged myself on purpose,” Gregory said. “I wanted a rigorous course schedule.”

Despite this, she said it doesn’t necessarily affect her.

“I guess I’ve been doing it for so long that I don’t really realize that it’s that much different from what other kids would be doing,” Gregory said. “This is my fourth round of finals week, I’m kind of used to it by now.”

She said that she feels that her stress is not unique to her.

“I see the other kids and mingle with them and they seem to have a lot of stress too,” Gregory said. “I feel like compared to some of the other students, I’m just kind of the same.”