There is nothing more enjoyable than feeling you are about to finish up another semester, getting yourself one milestone closer to moving out into the real world, and one day closer to summer break. With just over two weeks left until the last day of classes, most of us are probably starting to feel the pressure of finishing the semester strong. After another four months of hard work we all want to get the last few assignments out of the way, get finals done and move on with our lives. There is only one problem with this: The end of the semester at N.C. State is so prolonged it seems we never get to actually finish.

The first stretch we run into is the whole dead week thing. During this week no tests, quizzes, papers or projects should be assigned to ensure students can prepare for final exams. This would be a nice and easy week if it wasn’t immediately made redundant after the last day of classes.

After classes end on a Friday we always have two reading days before finals start. These reading days always fall on a Monday and Tuesday, the two days after a weekend. Now we’ve had an entire week of classes where almost nothing happens so we can get ready for finals, and then four days where absolutely nothing happens so we can get ready for finals. That comes out to nine days dedicated to getting ready for exams. I have a hard time justifying these nine days where nothing happens when I could have already taken my finals and be moving on with my life outside of schoolwork.

Now we have finally moved on from sitting around waiting for exams to start and get to actually do something, but we still have to waste time sitting around doing nothing. There are eight days from when exams start to when they end. Of those eight days only six are used for testing. This, combined with being unable to take three finals in three consecutive exam slots, prevents us from knocking all our finals out early. Weekend days could easily be utilized as testing days when we’ve already been given nine days to prepare. We should be ready for all of exams whether they’re in consecutive order or not.

The last problem with finals is we are required to take them at all. Rarely have I taken a final that had any new material on it. Usually tests are a recap of everything we’ve done the whole semester. I have already been tested on it and proved what I know. Looking at my dad’s 20-some-odd years of data comparing students’ pre-final and post-final grades, most of the time there is no difference. The data shows if a student was a solid C student all year, they will most likely get a C on the final. If they were an A student all year, they usually get an A. By forcing us to take a final not only are you wasting our time, but professors’ time as well.

Let’s make it simple and just have classes end and finals start.