Semester Finals- the last chance that a student gets to redeem themselves- tend to show up fast, starting Dec. 16th this year. Per usual, students at school have three tests each day.

But not all students prep the same way; everyone is different with their study habits and finals week is no exception to this. Some students will start prepping weeks in advance, whereas some don’t start at all.

Just like the students, not all of the finals are the same either.

Claudia Mayer, a junior, says that despite having “bounds of nervous energy, (she is) extremely anxious.”

She also admits to beginning her studying two weeks in advance to finals, doing this because she “feels like (she has) a lot to cover and there is just not enough time.”

Claudia will “spend hours upon hours studying. I will rewrite all of my notes (and) re-read the chapters in the textbook. I also depend on John Green, and I like mnemonics for memorization. Flash cards have also become a way of life for me.”

Claudia is not exaggerating either. She has truly been seen spending this kind of time working. Noticeable with her striking green hair, she carries around a matching stack of bound flashcards for AP U.S History, or APUSH to those who are daring enough to try their hand at this duling course. Her mornings begin with a can of monster and a quick session of memorizing cards, which she will go over time and time again. She confesses to  awkwardly laughing at every mention of finals.

She studies for all her tests like this; Claudia will make sure that she has all the information down before she takes a test-specially in the four AP classes which she is enrolled in..

On the very opposite side of the spectrum, junior Tyler Reaves says that he, “Doesn’t study for finals, (he) doesn’t know how.”

Tyler also doesn’t think that “teachers in specific go overboard. But it is what they think they need to do to see if they did a good job teaching. It is a review of them while also over-analyzing students memories, considering students have eight classes to do that for.”

He believes that “finals are necessary, but they should not be so extensive and specific. You take unit tests throughout the semester that are specific, so the finals should be general.”

Freshman Klaudia Goryl will be taking her first set of finals this year, she’s “kind of freaking about finals next week”, but that stress hasn’t hit her yet.

Klaudia started studying for finals right around Thanksgiving break and she did this “because I really want to get good grades on them.”

“The way I study is just going over all of my notes and making notecards out of possible questions and some of my teachers gave me a study guide so I just go over that,” she says, also adding that she, “absolutely think(s) that some teachers go overboard, I mean I’m not Wonder Woman, how am I supposed to know everything, specifically down to the exact words that we did the past semester?”

The innocence of a Freshman before finals is still present in Klaudia, but not for long.Who knows how she will be during her junior year. Maybe she will turn into her opposite with the same name, Claudia, who can maybe give her some pointers on successfully surviving school.

Mr. Priestley, a history teacher at LHS says that “finals are necessary because one of the goals of Lemont High School is to prepare you for the skills necessary for the future…to develop for college and career readiness.”

Students will prep, so will the teachers. Many teachers and students feel finals are necessary, as there isn’t a huge disagreement among students.Finals seem to constantly rear their heads when no one is expecting. Students and teachers alike must prepare- as they all do with different levels of panic.