Turn up for finals by studying in a bar

Walking into the Blarney Stone at 5 p.m. on a Wednesday offers a very different scene than the average Friday night throw down. Just three people sat at the bar, making the quiet atmosphere an optimal place to study.

Finding a seat in Starbucks during finals week can be more difficult than booking a GSR. But for the price of a grande soy caramel macchiato , you can pay for almost two Yuenglings at Blarney’s.

Earlier this semester, College junior Lauren Hunter was frustrated with the lack of seating at the Starbucks in the Penn Bookstore. Instead of heading to another almost certainly full coffee shop, she thought, since it was 5:30 p.m. , the Blarney Stone might be empty. Her hunch was correct.

Since then, Blarney has become fall-back study option for Hunter.

“I am so much more focused in a bar because there is nothing to distract me,” she said. “I get about 10 times as much as reading done at a bar that I would at home.”

While students might be wary that drinking could hinder their studying, an article published by The Journal of Neuroscience in 2011 proves that alcohol, while deterring the way we process conscious memory, can improve subconscious memory and increase our capacity to learn.

But if drinking while studying is not a concern, other aspects of working in a bar might be. In Blarney’s, locked Wi-Fi and dim lighting may make it hard to read and access assignments. It might take a while to find an outlet to plug into — check the ceiling by the TV.

Smokey Joe’s, by contrast, has louder music, but their booths offer more comfortable study seating, akin to the booths in Weigle Information Commons. In addition, Smoke’s has Wi-Fi — although this may allow for some unnecessary distractions, such as Facebook or Buzzfeed.

A Nursing senior, who preferred to remain anonymous in case her teacher read the article, talked about her experience with studying during the Blarney’s Tuesday Quizzo events.

“This semester my Spanish homework has been the bane of my existence,” she said. “I had homework that was always due on Wednesday, and Tuesday night is prime time to be doing things and going out.”

One night, her friends convinced her to go to Quizzo, Spanish reading in hand. She said if she had stayed in her room, she probably would’ve fallen asleep with the reading, but being in the Blarney’s helped her stay awake and finish her reading. For a more serious study environment, the Nursing senior suggests Harvest’s happy hour, where she’s worked on group projects in the past.

Although working in bars may be an underutilized study strategy, a Smoke’s server said that the trend hasn’t quite caught on yet.

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