This fall semester is the first time some Long Beach State students take their finals in-person since the COVID-19 pandemic when classes and tests were taken online.
Evan Garcia, a second-year environmental science and policy major, said taking tests online were easier than cramming for an in-person exam.
“I feel like online you have access to view your notes and in person you wouldn’t have that anymore,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he spends his time in the university library going over his textbooks and creating a study guide to be prepared for his upcoming final exams.
Students like first-year business finance major Bryon Gonzales are taking their first in-person college final since graduating high school. Gonzales said college was a different environment from high school, noting the big lecture halls compared to smaller high school classes.
“I feel like it’s a little bit of a jump because of the atmosphere, I feel like it’s an environment change,” Gonzalez said.
A study of 2,000 college students reported that 52% of students learned less during the pandemic and 23% of college freshmen felt unprepared, according to Inside Higher Education.
Quantitative analysis professor Katarzyna Slowinska is conducting her students’ finals in person rather than online, and said she noticed students were more stressed when school was online during the pandemic.
“They were definitely much more stressful during the pandemic because of the technology issues and some students had problems staying connected,” Slowinska said.
Slowinska said she changed her chemistry final exam into two parts to help ease the transition from online test taking to in the classroom. The in-class portion will be multiple choice and the second part will be a take-home lab where students have a 48-hour window to complete.
The university library is one of the many spots on campus students migrate to for late-night study sessions, offering several areas to study, librarians available to help with projects and a Caffeine Lab to provide coffee and tea and snacks.
As finals week draws near, the university library has extended its hours, open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.