by Owen Miklos ‘16
The week before finals is a stressful time for both teachers and students alike. Whichever category you fall under, there is going to be a fair amount of cramming that takes place.
Teachers, more often than not, find themselves behind on their lesson plans and calculate that they could probably fit a month’s worth of coursework in four days should everything pan out, all the while cursing the off-days they took in the waning moments of September.
On the other hand, students, when asked about their studying techniques, will often outline their strict regimens involving ingenious timing blocks and dietary supplements, only to end up pulling out their books the day of the final.
It’s curious how varied the student body’s response to the question of cramming was. Those simply hoping for a passing grade were very forthright about their studying tactics, saying, simply, that no such tactics existed. They were better off, they said, doing things “their way” than opening up the book that’s been gathering dust in their locker since August.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, those fighting it out for class valedictorian were also very upfront—they admitted that the chances of them studying several days in advance were slim. They instead opted to rely on what they had learned from the past few months. At most, they would look over their notes a couple days before the final. “My grades have typically gone up after finals so the material must stay in my head until then,” notes Andrew Zawie ’16.
Then there are the rest of us: With our lofty and proudly proclaimed intentions of multiday course review, online Quizlet sessions, and group collaboration, the true American legacy of last-minute cramming is nowhere more prevalent than in the storied halls of Saint Ignatius—salvaging passing grades without study aids since 1886. And the flagbearer? Our own Nick Serio ’16.
While the rest of his sophomore APUSH brethren paced out their identifications—short essays for vocabulary terms—for Mr. Pecot ’91 over week-long spans, Serio, after a week’s worth of procrastinating and selfreassuring pep talks, with mere hours left on the turnitin.com clock, opened up his laptop and his copy of The American Pageant over the backseat of his ride into school and started grinding out his essays. Somehow he managed, while his classmates looked on in disbelief. “That kid was operating on a different level,” his classmate, Geoff Allman ’16, stated. “I think he got a better grade than me, too.”
Fast-forward a year, and here we are again—big tests and college applications loom ahead, and Nick Serio’s not worried in the least. In between furiously filling out his MacNotes for his AP Language class the period before, Serio admitted, “I’m used to cramming because it seems like that’s what I’m always doing.”
