Dead week, in name only

Paige Backman
pbackman@uwyo.edu
The week before final exams has gained the nickname “Dead Week which can be used affectionately or with loathing because it can mean various things to students.“ It’s not really ‘dead’. I have two finals this week,.” UW student Sarah Falen said. Falen, an agricultural communications major, said she believes that while this week is stressful, finals week will be even more so.
“One of the classes only meets once a week so our actual scheduled final is a presentation on the project. And that’s only 5 percent of the score.”
Falen said that on top of the projects, she has a lot of studying that still needs to be done. “My dead week is actually dead now that Monday and Tuesday have passed,” UW student Maddie Kovach said.
Kovach had two presentations – one on each day.
“Now I finally get to sit down and look at what I need to study for finals,” Kovach said. Kovach feels like ‘dead week’ is just a term.
Kovach said, “I feel like it’s alive and well, this week,” she said.
Students have taken to social media to express some of their feelings about dead week. Websites like Twitter and Instagram have changed their themes from joyful holiday subjects to pictures of study sessions in the library. Dead week is merely a slang term Coordinator of student advising- Steven Suder said.
“Looking at the final examination policy, scheduling final presentations is totally legal,” he said.
Suder explained the best way to avoid the stress of dead week is to keep on top of the syllabus.
“I would bet big money that most students are not really aware of what this week is supposed to involve,” Suder said.
The University of Wyoming Regulations 6-403 or final examinations policy states in section C that “no examination or graded exercise should be given in the last week of classes unless it is essential for the effective functioning of the course, it is a makeup test or examination or it is regularly scheduled exercise.” According to the policy if the presentation or test is scheduled during the week before finals, the instructor is required to notify the class in the syllabus. Actual finals week will begin Dec. 14. Alternate schedules can be found on the UW website.