It is finals week. A week that college kids everywhere dread all school year long. It is a week where stress reaches an all-time high and some students reach a point where they “accept defeat.”

The thing is, we all knew this week would come. So why do we always wait until the last minute to study and prepare for the end of the semester exams?

I have tried to prepare at least a week in advance but it seemed like during a time when we should be encouraged to study, I was assigned a heavy workload of projects. This got in the way of my study time. 

This is not the reason that students everywhere fail to study, however. The main culprit is procrastination. Procrastination is waiting until the last minute to complete a task. 

According to an article from the American Psychological Association titled “Procrastination or ‘intentional delay?,'” one study showed that “…early in the semester, procrastinators reported lower stress and illness than non-procrastinators, but that in late term, procrastinators reported higher stress and more illness.” 

Waiting until last minute may seem like a good idea when you keep putting studying to the side at the time when you free up more of your time, but in the end when you are making up for more than a week’s worth of studying in one night, you could be overwhelming yourself. 

I have procrastinated before, but I learned to not put myself through that stress again. A tip to make studying less painful is to keep a positive mindset. There comes a point in procrastination where you accept defeat and stop caring. 

While studying, this is when you realize that you have studied all that you can and you have retained as much knowledge as you can handle. Waiting until last minute is not the best idea, but it might not be all that bad.

According to the previously mentioned source, “…although active procrastinators reported the same level of procrastination as their traditional or passive counterparts, they demonstrated a productive use of time, adapting coping styles and academic performance outcomes that were nearly identical to- in some cases even better than- those of non-procrastinators.” 

Procrastinating is not all that bad if you know just how to make up for the time lost. Whatever your reason for procrastinating, whether that be you got too busy or you work better during crunch time, keep a positive attitude. To all college students: good luck on your finals!

Karena Ozier is a sophomore elementary education major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at kmozier@eiu.edu.