8 a.m. much earlier during finals week

By PRISCILLA CASTRO

If you have classes at 8 in the morning this semester, you may have to wake up a little early to take your final.

For the first time at Fresno State, those enrolled in 8 a.m. classes are scheduled to have their final exams at 6:45 a.m. Many students may find it a little difficult to be at school, in their seats, ready to take an exam at that time.

Students are up studying till 2 or 3 in the morning so they can do well on their final exams. There is no way students will be able to focus on a test at 6:45 in the morning when they have been studying all night.

Some students don’t even live here in Fresno. Not every student lives within minutes of the school.

Some have to commute an hour or more to school everyday. For those students, a 6:45 final means leaving for school an hour and a half earlier, time that could be spent studying or even getting much-needed sleep.

Every student I have talked to finds it ridiculous that the school would schedule a final at that hour. Many students have part-time or full-time jobs they go to after classes are over, so it could be impossible for some students to go home and go to sleep after they are done taking their exam.

Those of us who take classes at 8 a.m. usually take classes at that time because we can’t make 7 a.m. classes. I have taken 7 a.m. classes in the past and it was extremely difficult to make it to class on time
That is the reason why I stopped taking classes at 7 a.m.—it is just too hard to focus.

Even the instructors appear to be siding with the students. Instructors are aware that students stay up late studying for tests and may not be able to concentrate at 7 a.m.

As a result, some instructors have tried to find a different time for the students to take their final exams.

But some instructors have found it difficult to change the time of their finals because of conflicting schedules. So some instructors are taking an alternate route…hold the final on a dead day.

But, dead days are intended for students to get studying done and finish projects. Now students may have to push a little harder to get things done on time.

All of the students I have talked to would much rather have the date of their final pushed up than have to take their final exam at 6:45.

I personally would much rather take a final on a dead day than have to be in class at 6:45. Some students can’t even make it on time to an 8 a.m. class.

How does the school expect them to be in class at 6:45 in the morning?

Next semester the school needs to not hold finals at 6:45, so we don’t have to take finals on a dead day.