The overwhelming stress experienced during the week before finals causing students to look and feel like death; is dead week.

Dead week at Chico State is one of the most stressful times, but professors aren’t as accommodating as they could be. Instead of giving time to study and actually prepare for finals, students are given more assignments.

Since “dead week” is a slang term, there is no clear definition. According to Urban Dictionary, dead week is the week before finals are administered and most major projects and assignments are due for submission.

The late night working and hardcore studying for finals gives students a zombie-like personality and causes an eerie silence and many blank, unseeing expressions. With the semester winding down and students struggling to complete essays and tests, the zombie-like atmosphere of Chico State during the final week occurs every semester.

Junior Carlos Castillo said dead week is the time to prepare for finals. “It’s the most stressful week of the semester where you’re just cramming everything you haven’t grasped yet,” Castillo said.

This seems to be the case for many students. Pulling all-nighters and skipping classes just to study for finals is normal. Looking and feeling like death around this time probably means that someone is trying to be a good student.

According to an online forum, students from other campuses, like Harvard University calls their week before finals “Reading period.” These periods give professors the choice to cancel regular classes, potentially giving students more study time for final exams.

This time would greatly help the students at Chico State, who do not have the same time to study and regularly cut class during the final week.

Chico State sophomore David Mercado said that science teachers don’t give breaks during dead week. “We still had a lab, and homework was still being assigned.”

With the heavy weight of final exams being the final decision of whether students pass their classes or not, there should be more time for students to actually get in that needed study time.

Castillo said it would be more beneficial if classes were canceled. “Some of my classes were canceled and others were mostly review.”

Giving students an extra week to catch up on homework or study for the new material would greatly help them. Without being able to learn new material that is introduced at the end of classes or continuing to assign work at the end of the semester, students are almost expected to fail.

The point of going to a university isn’t just to pass, but no one wants to have failed because they didn’t get enough time to study or because they weren’t able to read up on the final chapter of a class.

Dead week should be for reviewing and finalizing for the end of the semester and the school should allow for that to happen. Introducing new lessons in the last week before finals doesn’t allow for enough review time.

Sophia Robledo can be reached at [email protected] or @TheOrion_News on Twitter.