“”
Making It Through Finals
It’s just about final exam time on the Carolina campus. We
asked alumni to share how they made it through finals. And yes,
just about everybody still has that nightmare years later of having
skipped class all semester and showing up for a final not having
any idea what the subject is. Excerpts of some responses are
below. Read more at alumni.unc.edu/finals.
class quotes
with them in Lexington, so I could devote full
time to my studies. And my husband bought
enough TV dinners for the whole week so I
didn’t have to cook. I could not have made it
without them! I finished my PhD (1977)
when our daughter had just turned 7.”
Eunice Doman Myers ’ 71
Lexington
MATTHEW PLYLER/1987 YACKET Y YACK
“I hated staying up late to study for finals,
so I would nearly always go to bed about 9
p.m. in my room (No. 3 Pettigrew) and set the
alarm for 2 a.m. Then I’d walk to Bingham
Hall, which was always unlocked, find an
empty classroom and study till exam time. It
worked (I DID graduate).”
Harry Dewey ’ 41
Barnwell and Laurens, S.C.
“I never could pull an all-nighter. I would
gather all of my notes, books, etc., and study
until sleepy, then take short naps, wake up and
start again. I also treated myself to eating out
once during every exam period before a big
history exam. I would go to Mama Dip’s and
sit in a corner with all my materials and eat a
vegetable plate. The staff would then keep me
supplied with biscuits and iced tea for the next
couple of hours. It was easy to study under
those conditions! By the way, everyone I know
has that nightmare about exams. I find it happens to me when I have a deadline or am
stressed about something — I’m back in college and wake in a cold sweat.”
Kim Frederick Zeugner ’ 83
Cary
Staking out an an empty classroom or a restaurant booth to
study and fueling all-nighters with nonstop coffee are just a
few of the strategies alumni used to survive finals.
myself, ‘What does this mean?’ I guess I’ll
dream this the rest of my life!”
Dawn Livengood Widger ’ 87
Littleton, Colo.
“I pulled all-nighters for all of my exams
and I drank a lot of coffee. For history exams I
made timelines; for geography exams I made
maps; for political science exams I made
administrative charts; for language exams I
studied hard and prayed. For all of the others
the memories are still bad and still fresh.”
James A. Rogerson ’ 65
Edenton
“Finals! Such fun to think about and not
have to do! I always made a careful plan for
time use, gathered all my materials and followed my plan. Unfortunately, my plan only
managed my time and not my quality of
learning and recall. I tried to eat wisely and
walk, reduce stress. Ended up overeating junk
food and having nightmares about lack of
recall. Drew a complete blank on experimental
psych exam. I ran to Dr. Long’s office and
explained. What a wonderful teacher! He spent
about 15 minutes just talking with me, helping
me calm down. And then he only graded the
part that I finished. I don’t remember the
grade, but I will never forget the man!”
Donna Leah Murray Gregory ’ 70
Mebane
“When I was at Carolina, I lived in Granville
South and during exams they would offer ‘zoo
hour’ for an hour or two in the early evening.
It was a time when residents did not have to
be quiet for studying, which of course meant
that it was an excuse to be louder than usual.
At the time I thought it was goofy, but looking back I can appreciate the chance to blow
off steam and be relaxed and a bit crazy in a
controlled way if you wanted.”
Lynn Peithman Stock ’ 84
Charlotte
“I was a young mother during the last two
years of undergrad, then went straight through
for an MA and PhD, even in summer sessions.
I will be forever grateful to my parents and my
in-laws, who took turns taking care of our
daughter during final exam week. She stayed
“It was a dark and stormy night in Hinton
James. And cold, what with it being December
1990 and all. With less than 12 hours before
two lengthy papers were due on two professors’ desks, it was obvious an all-nighter was in
the works for this freshman geek eager to have
the grades promised to his parents when they
agreed to let him attend that expensive out-of-state institution. In the hopes of proactively
combating 3 a.m. fatigue, I committed the caffeine equivalent of binge drinking by mixing
two scoops of instant coffee into my two-liter
bottle of Jolt Cola. For the record, instant coffee doesn’t mix very well with cold carbonated
beverages. Also for the record, the Jolt-Nescafe
mixture tasted much like I imagine engine
sludge might. By 2 a.m., I was shaking so
badly I couldn’t type. Not that it mattered,
because my brain was moving too erratically
and randomly to keep leashed, and I found
myself dancing to crappy ’80s hair metal in a
desperate attempt to return to some level of
acceptable energetic normalcy. It merely served
as a reminder that youth is a time when the
first instinct is to kill flies with a bazooka
when a mere flyswatter would do the trick.”
Billy T. Faires ’ 94
Chattanooga, Tenn.
“I remember staying up late (but never too
late, because I have to have my ZZZs) and
studying. But, the incredible thing to me is the
fact that over 20 years after I’ve graduated, I
still wake up at night with my heart racing. I
wake up from a dream thinking I’ve got to go
take a final exam and I haven’t studied or
attended class all semester. (I had evidently forgotten I even had the class!) I walk into the
exam (I’m always going into a classroom
around the Quad) with no clue about the subject. It’s very unnerving and I always ask
ONLINE:
■ To share your Carolina experiences on a
range of topics, visit the alumni message
boards at alumni.unc.edu/mboard.
