By Annaleise Parsons | Staff Writer
First-year Baylor students will soon experience their first in-person finals week at the end of the semester after doing online finals last December.
Baylor professors have the option to conduct either online or in-person finals, depending on their class structure and room availability to allow for social distancing.
Lantana sophomore Preston Wheat said finals before the pandemic felt more planned out.
“I felt like my study schedule for finals was more structured and that it had the ability to be spaced out more which helped me succeed. Now … I feel confused due to different modes of instruction,” Wheat said.
Wheat has both in-person and online finals coming up.
Houston freshman Hannah James, who is in both the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and the Honors program, said her finals are in-person this semester which she prefers to the online finals of the fall semester.
“I found it really difficult to focus while studying for online finals last semester since we were already home for Christmas break,” James said.
Wheat said he prefers in-person finals as well because his online finals required LockDown Browser.
“LockDown Browser provides a level of stress that I find unnecessary and overwhelming,” Wheat said.
James said that in some of her BIC classes, she’ll have a term paper instead of an in-person exam, which relieves some stress during the exam week. She said she plans on reviewing using the same method of “going over notes and reviewing.”
Baylor final exams will be from April 30 to May 5. The Baylor Tutoring Center and the Learning Lab will be open for appointments for study schedules, calendars and resources until April 29.
For freshmen taking their finals in-person for the first time at Baylor, Wheat recommends getting a study planner or schedule together for exam week.
“Make sure to follow it.” Wheat said. “Give yourself breaks and get good rest when you can.”
