Exam pressure winding up and steam running out
With exams just around the corner, it’s difficult not to look back longingly at reading week, a week of relative freedom. But if you’re anything like me, reading week was not quite the success it was supposed to be. On paper, it was to be a week of schoolwork and relaxation that would be the very picture of balance. In practice, the nights were later and the mornings groggier.
The days were spent catching up on crim readings and trying to get ahead on … crim readings. The nights were spent hastily catching up with all those non-law school friends who were wondering how I fell off the face of the earth. Add in a small group assignment (which I didn’t start, but I did worry about) and there was little time for that scheduled relaxation. While not a disaster, it certainly wasn’t ideal.
With that said, some of my classmates were a little better at managing their reading weeks. Some travelled to see family, or just plain travelled. Others hit the library regularly, and I certainly admire that. But come our first day back, there was a fair bit of commiserating about less-than-ideal productivity by all. As I chatted with my classmates about what they had been up to over the break, I tried to get a sense of how they felt about reading week, timing-wise: was it too late in the semester or too early? Perhaps it isn’t shocking but us law students couldn’t really come to a consensus. However, I assure you they had great arguments.
There was one common sentiment though—exams seemed much closer than they had just one week prior. The pressure was winding up. Perhaps more alarmingly, the last day of classes sure looked close to our first exam. Very close. It seemed we could all agree that a little breathing room between the two would be welcome. In my first year of undergrad, we didn’t have a reading week in the first semester. Instead, classes ended earlier, giving us about a week of dedicated exam prep. I won’t advocate transplanting reading week (if only to preserve some friendships) but I do think a couple of days between classes and exams would be beneficial, rather than being at the mercy of the exam schedule for any such break.
