The Final Ritual : Students Cram Coffee and Knowledge for Dreaded Exams

Wails of frustration and despair could be heard late at night in the library during final exam week at Cal State Long Beach. Obscenities and books, students say, sometimes bounced off the walls.

The all-night cramming sessions occur on every campus at a semester’s end. Students, guilty over procrastination or worried that a future career could slide into jeopardy, hit the books under the influence of stay-awake tablets and coffee.

Final exams are hell--everyone knows that, said a CSULB engineering student getting ready for one last Friday.

Self-Imposed Pressure

Dan Barber, professor in the Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration, believes that final exams are taken too seriously by CSULB students.

“They want to get their ticket punched (graduate) and get out,” Barber said. “A lot of them have their heads down; they don’t stop and take advantage of cultural things.”

Barber, 44, who was a student at the University of Miami in the mid-1960s, said students put pressure on themselves. “They reflect the personality of the state,” he said. “Californians think they can race across town at the last minute. Students think they can race across the subject matter at the last minute and bail themselves out.”

Kelly Stanfield, a senior who was studying a “Physical Security” textbook at mid-morning on the sunny patio of a campus cafe, needed no bailing out. “All my friends stay up all night and take No-Doz. I don’t,” said Stanfield, who had kept up with her studying during the semester. Of the final she would take at 12:30 p.m., she said, “I don’t worry at all. It’s not going to change my grade much.”

No Set Formula for Tests

There is no set formula at the 34,000-student university that determines how much a final examination counts toward a grade, said Jim Menzel, director of admissions and records. He said there is a final in almost every course.

In the Student Union, small batches of students studied while they ate. Their notes were masses of green from highlighting pens. A full ashtray was the centerpiece of one table where two sophomores attempted to become familiar with the properties of the earth.

In a Student Union practice room that was barely large enough to hold a piano, mechanical engineering major Levi Javier, who was between exams, played Schumann’s “Joyous Farmer.”

“My friends are probably stressed out in the library,” he said.

Although Javier, of Cerritos, does not subscribe to the life-and-death approach to finals, he knows many who do. “They’re competing for that almighty grade,” he said. “They think, ‘If I don’t get it, my future is over.’ It’s absurd. And kind of sad. They just want the grades. Get that MBA, get all that money, buy that Ferrari.”

At the library, which was open 24 hours a day during finals week, which ended Tuesday, there was no wailing last Friday morning. But its long tables were packed and there was an air of tension beneath the fluorescent lights.

It was 45 minutes before the next final. One group scribbled equations and memorized formulas for a statistics test. Before each student was a calculator, a gadget that dramatically altered the scene from two decades ago when slide rules were in vogue.

Sleep Postponed

When their exam was over, the students agreed, they would sleep.

Outdoors, birds sang happy songs that probably were unheard by crammers on concrete benches. One student read aloud, pounding her fists gently on her notes. She glanced at her watch. It was 12:15 p.m.

Just before 12:30, in a sloping lecture room in one of the campus nearly uniform buildings, the final exam for Geology 102 was about to be given. A pencil sharpener sounded. Hair was nervously twirled.

“I probably should just free my mind,” admitted a student in the back row. But he studied until the last second anyway.

“OK, let’s get started,” said Bonnie Packer, a part-time faculty member. “No. 2 pencils only. All your stuff beneath your seats.”

“When will we get our grades?” a student asked.

“The answers will be posted by 3 p.m.” Packer said. The grades would be sent later by mail.

100 Questions on Test

The tests, of the multiple-choice type popularly referred to as multiple guess, were passed out. There were 100 questions, including: “Which one of the following is NOT true about an artesian well?” The students, who would be correct if they chose C (the water always flows out at the ground surface), rustled through the test booklets. They recorded answers on computerized cards. They would have two hours to complete the test.

While the tests were going on, the bookstore was thinning out after doing a brisk business in junk food--although the cashier said she had been pushing juices. Jonathan Grenier, a junior, bought cold medicine and said, “I was awake three solid days.” He credited No-Doz and coffee with making that siege possible.

At 1 p.m., sophomore Jennifer Frohn and three other young women sat in the Nugget, a campus eating and drinking spot. Despite the week’s stress, they looked fresh--with perfect nails, shining eyes and bright outlooks.

Being a college student “is the best life,” Monique Lawrence said. “My parents take care of me, I have tons of friends.”

Teacher Discussed

The four friends, members of Delta Gamma sorority, drank beer and chatted. “You have to get on her good side to get a B,” Frohn, her hair cascading down the back of her dark blue sweat shirt, complained to Heidi Johnson and Gina Severing about an instructor. “So I was attentive, I participated, I stayed after class.”

Frohn, who had been sustained through one night of studying by seven cups of coffee, was pleased with an interior design exam. “I was the first one out, out in 10 minutes, totally awesome,” she said. “There were 50 questions, I knew all of them. I just whipped through them.”

“Pressure? There’s pressure when you’re a borderline A-B,” Frohn said. “My mom expects me to make the dean’s list again. I don’t think I will, but I did my best.”

Glad It’s Over

An overjoyed senior greeted the women. “I just took the last final of my life!” Greg Goodrich exclaimed. “I’m done with college as of this moment!”

As he went off to celebrate and contemplate a career in finance, another Delta Gamma member came in from taking a final and joined the group. “I need a drink,” announced Pam Stockwell, a speech communications major. “I’m still shaking.”

Returning with a wine cooler, Stockwell put on lipstick, then revealed her ordeal: “She told us eight plays would be on the test; 25 were on it. I still did good, I think.”

The beer line got longer, extending toward the door. One waiting student said: “In the middle of the final I asked the teacher if I could drop the class. He didn’t answer me.”

Back at the table, the women’s conversation turned social: “He might come down here? Oh, my God!” Lawrence said to Frohn.

Finals had become history.