Spring has finally arrived. Some may find it hard to believe that it’s already April. But most of us are relieved that the end of the school year has arrived. With that being said May is coming up, and soon it will be a stressful finals week. As high schoolers we are used to being out of here by June, but for college kids the stress has already started. As we enter mid April college students get ready to take their semester finals and move onto the summer.

I wondered what the experience is like, and how different they are from high school. I was able to get in contact with my brother, and he was able to give me all the answers. North Schuylkill graduate Jordan Donmoyer who currently is a sophomore at Thomas Jefferson University majoring in communications.

Describe a typical homework assignment?

•  A Typical Homework Assignment is usually about finding an organization or event on campus and grabbing coverage on it. It has to be written in AP Style with somewhere to 300-500 words, and around 2-4 quotes with a reputable background source/information

What are your finals like?

•  None of my finals are actual exams, but instead applied projects. For example an extended news story covering an investigation drawn out over a few weeks. They can be making documentaries on it, and using camera equipment or broadcasting the news story with cameras at different angles.

Why don’t you have exam like finals?

• You can only be tested on so much in communications. Most of the content is applied skills, not so much book smarts.

How prepared do you feel for finals this year?

•  “I feel much better about it, as this is my 4th time taking finals. I am used to the pace at this point with having everything crammed at the end of a semester like this.”

How long do you spend on assignments?

•  Most assignments take anywhere from 1-3 hours. Some may be longer. Usually it isn’t hard work but most of it is fact checking, and making sure the wording is correct.

I am aware that you are on the golf team at Jefferson. How much more difficult is it having sports on top of school?

• “It’s definitely tough having to play a sport in college. In golf there is a lot of travel. It’s a lot harder to keep up with the pace in class and making sure you get to the professors to catch up, but you do learn to manage over time.”

What advice can you give to new Freshmen in college or fresh students taking their first semester finals?

• The biggest thing is to not overlook them. It is extremely easy to overlook them, but finals is a grind you have to do to get through them and make it to the summer.

Finally how much of your grade is finals worth?

•  “For me my final projects are typically around 15%-25% of my final grade. It can really be a big factor in if you pass or fail the course.”