It could be a sweet dream…

Imagine open-book finals from the comfort of your own home, without teachers breathing down your neck or students zipping through the exam while you just stare blankly at the first question. Oh wait…that’s how finals were this year! That’s right, ladies and gents. Someone made a wish upon the right star or performed a really effective satanic ritual, because we got to take our finals FROM HOME this year. How luxurious it felt to roll out of bed, set my notes and textbook open next to me, and take a multiple choice exam to which I could look up the answers. No teachers to yell at me for eating pancakes during the exam. No students to question why I was eating pancakes during the exam. THAT must be the American Dream, and I daresay, we got it.

…or a beautiful nightmare.

I mean, sure, on paper, the at-home finals proposition seemed excellent. And I’m sure you’re thinking: are you really going to complain about at-home finals? Honestly, I’m a bit shocked, too. But in the words of Sharpay Evans, “This is not what I want, this is not what I planned.” There is no worse feeling than still getting many questions wrong on an open note test. Also (and this is a sneaky little side effect), not being in a high stress environment for finals didn’t make it feel like finals. But isn’t that a good thing, you may wonder. NO. The fact that the exam didn’t feel like finals might have alleviated the stress, but it also robbed us of the weightlessness of post-exam euphoria that we so desperately craved and deserved. Instead, we get all the work of finals week with none of the rewards, and what’s the fun in that?