Finals week is hard to handle for most students, but the added day off class new to the semester system was meant to alleviate some of the stress.
OSU students will have one free day in between the last day of classes and the first day of final exams, known as Reading Day.
Scheduled for Wednesday, Reading Day was implemented into the academic calendar to give students the opportunity to study and prepare for their exams.
“With the structure of semesters, we had more flexibility in terms of the term beginning earlier and when we needed to finish in early December,” said David Schneider, assistant registrar in the Office of the University Registrar.
Schneider said the office examined other schools’ schedules under semesters and found that an extra day would be not only be a viable option for the university, but a welcome one.
“It seemed like a nice thing to do for our students,” Schneider said, adding that most students are dealing with a larger course load than they were on the quarter system.
“We were also noting that students typically took three to four courses on quarters, but they’re now taking more – typically four or five, even six, courses,” Schneider said.
Katelyn Wright, a second-year in international studies, said she appreciated the way exam week was scheduled.
“I like the break in between because it gives you extra time to study, because you can study for whatever finals are on Thursday and Friday on Wednesday and then the rest of them over the weekend so it splits everything up and it gives you a break since the semester has been really, really long,” Wright said.
Becca Adam, a first-year in business administration, said she is happy that Reading Day will give her more time to prepare for exams, but some of her friends feel differently.
“I think it’s a nice thing because it’s a chance to get organized before finals begin, but I know a couple of my friends are frustrated with having an extra day because they just want to go home and get the semester over with as soon as possible,” Adam said.
Other students such as Peter Marzalik, a third-year in international studies and Russian, said he was pleased about the Finals Week schedule as well.
“I feel like you have more time to prepare for the finals actually…it’s definitely beneficial to me,” Marzalik said.
Timothy Bartley, an associate sociology professor, said he hopes students in his “World Problems in Global Context” class use Reading Day to their full advantage.
“It’s important to have time to catch up and recharge before launching into finals,” Bartley said. “I hope my students take it seriously and use the time to actually prepare.”
Schneider said Reading Day will be “up for review” by the University Registrar after this semester, but it will likely continue in the spring.
During Spring Semester, the last day of regular classes is scheduled for April 22, Reading Day for April 23 and final exams from April 24-30.
“Presuming that everyone is comfortable with the way the academic calendar turns out, I think it’s moving toward a standard operating procedure for spring 2013 and beyond,” Schneider said.

Dan Hope contributed to this article.