As classes end and reading days roll around, Penn students start gearing up for the last hurdle before winter break: finals.
Van Pelt Library is full, along with every other conceivable study spot, and students are scrambling to reserve group study rooms (or GSRs, in campus parlance). Here is a glimpse of how a few Penn students are planning to prepare for their final exams.
Max Frantz - College freshman
Major: Classical Studies
Game plan: “I literally just study. I don’t do anything else the whole few days before. I kind of ditch my friends. But like, personally, I just study. I don’t even eat. I forget to eat.”
Fuel: “I drink a lot of coffee.”
Hours of operation: “2 a.m., 3 a.m … you can find me in my room."
Mary Zhuo Ke - Engineering sophomore
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Major: Bioengineering, with a Sustainability and Environmental Management Minor
Game plan: “Generally, I look at what my weakest points were for the entire course, and mainly keep that in mind when I review the entire set of the material that I’ve learned ... I look at the old material, material I’m both familiar and unfamiliar with, and then I try to make all those connections again to see what exactly was the way I was supposed to understand this.”
Down time: “During my entire time at Penn, on average, I’ve always gotten over seven hours [of sleep] … I never give it up.”
Fuel: “Clif bars."
Margaret Hemphill - College freshman
Major: Undecided
Game plan: “I went home, and I like, made like a pound of pasta. So I stocked up on pasta for the rest of the week. And I read a lot of FanFiction. And…I did some laundry. And I watched Yuri on Ice.”
Strategy: “It’s a mixture of being prepared, food-wise, and taking relaxing breaks.”
Fuel: “Going to Honest Tom’s.” “Pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Down time: “I’m the type of person who should be studying, but then sleeps instead…”
