“When I came in my freshman year, I had no idea on how to study for finals. I had no idea what finals [were] and I was kind of scared out of my mind,” Campus Climate commissioner sophomore Celine Mol said. “I think it’s good to have something like this where teachers come and there’s food and drinks, [the free food being] obviously just for more of an incentive.”
Initially, this event was only geared towards freshmen; however, the commissions later decided to open it to the rest of the student body. This event additionally was promoted through announcements as well as through fliers that were placed throughout the classrooms. Link leaders also told the freshmen about this event.
“Link leaders try to preach good study habits for finals because freshmen do not know anything about finals,” Link leader junior Vivian Duong, said, “This is kind of taking action by force and actually implementing this whole big studying for finals [event]. [Link has] gotten the library to be open longer but it’s not the same as this type of event.”
In addition to getting free food and help from peers and teachers, Mol also agrees that the general atmosphere of Cocoa Cram Week helps out with more effective final preparation.
“There’s less distraction here in a way, it depends on how well [you use your time],” Mol said. “I get more distracted by my computer than by my friends but that’s different per person.”
Although the cafeteria provided a focused work space, sophomore Sameera Vemulapalli attended the event on Tuesday because she needed help on studying for her physics final but found that there was a serious lack of teachers present.
“I studied and I got a lot done, but physics teacher Jim Birdsong was the only teacher [there],” Vemulapalli said.“I might [go again] if Birdsong was going.”
French teacher Sarah Finck, who was present at Cocoa Cram week, agreed that an event like this would be helpful to her students.
“I feel like it’s a healthy environment here since it’s in the the day instead of the middle of the night…and [it’s helpful] to have a bit more personal time [with teachers] to get the specific information that [students] need”, Finck said.
For Duong, she feels that Cocoa Cram Week makes it easier to start studying for finals earlier and she hopes that the event will help students realize this.
“If you come here you’re actually thinking about it and taking effort to start studying for finals ahead of time so you don’t cram it all in the weekend before” Duong said.
Cocoa Cram Week will be will be held from Dec. 5 to 9 from 3 to 6 p.m. in the cafeteria. Various teachers will be coming in and out throughout the week.
