Survey says UNC students want a ‘reading week’ before exams

Tar Heels have spoken – and they want more time to study during exams. In The Tab’s survey “Should UNC have a reading week,” 82.56% of UNC students voted ‘Yes.’

Many Ivy League universities, such as Yale and Princeton, have a full week to study between the last day of classes and the first exam period. At Carolina last semester, we had less than 48 hours.

This can be debilitating for students with a majority of their finals at the beginning of exam week or students with heavy amounts of assignments during the last few days of class. Pulling all-nighters before an exam is no student’s dream, but was the reality of many students this semester.

UNC senior Roisin Bermingham has said the lack of studying time has even more negative impacts on music students – “because for voice majors, our finals called voice juries, are always on reading days.”

She says, “A week would also just give more time for everyone to absorb information. Whether or not people still cram at the last minute is up to them.”

But in order to give students more time to study – or procrastinate – the school would have to shorten class time or shorten breaks. We aren’t sure either option would make everyone happy, but a conversation is a good place to start.