Every student has their own finals exam study ritual. Many involve highlighters and granola bars. 

Duke Zaragoza takes a different approach. He goes out of his way to fail a quiz before the final.

“If I start doing too well in the class, I’ll end up getting overconfident,” said Zaragoza, a junior Computer Engineering major. “Sometimes I will bomb a small quiz on purpose just before finals.”

 “It motivates me a lot more,” he said. “If I’m going into the final with more urgency I will be able to truly lock in and achieve better results.”

Zaragoza admits his approach to tackling finals is unconventional, but it has consistently worked for him. 

“I feel like my advice does not apply to most people because I have always had a weird way of looking at things,” he said. “Of course, most people would … not want to bomb a quiz on purpose, but I think that the thought process should be less grade-focused and more … be to feel like you worked hard enough for the results you achieved.

“The grade you get in the end should reflect that hard work and effort you poured in,” said Zaragoza

Finals tend to create stress in students. A 2022 study by the American Addiction Center found that exams were the biggest stressor among college students. Nearly 74% of students said studying for exams created stress.

PNW offers several stress-break activities, from pancake study breaks to game nights. But while they offer distractions from tests, students like Zaragoza have developed their own approaches. 

Junior Cole Oresik, an Electrical Engineering major, has a unique method for tackling finals. Rather than stay up late preparing the night before, Oresik does most of his last-minute studying on the morning of exams. 

“Instead of staying up late studying, I tend to spend maybe an hour the night before gathering any study materials I will need,” Oresik said. “I go over that material for a little bit, then head to bed earlier than usual so I can get up early the next day to really study.”

Oresik sees several benefits to fitting his preparations into the morning. 

“Being less tired and refreshed, I can focus more than cramming the night before and have an easier time retaining the material,” he said. “It feels less stressful for me to study on the morning of the test than it does the night before. The fear of accidentally sleeping in and being late is gone and I feel energized.