Anything but stressed

Thirty minutes before the MU Biology 1010 exam, the mood was anything but stressed.

As students filed in discussing Celine Dion, after-parties at Campus Bar and Grille or summer jobs, Terry Long, a sophomore, thumped Young Jeezy on his iPod.

“I ain’t even thinking about the test,” he said. “I’m just gonna take it.”

At MU, the second week in May generally means one thing: finals week. The end-of-the-year tests began Monday morning at 8 a.m. and stretch through Friday at 8 p.m.

The Biology 1010 exam for Robin Hurst’s class is one of the larger finals of the week, with hundreds of students filling up Johnson Auditorium in Middlebush Hall.

Though final exams typically account for much of a student’s semester grade, many of the students in Middlebush on Tuesday seemed at ease before the exam began.

Some students text messaged; others, like Long, rocked to the private beats of their MP3 players.

Long said he studied a couple of hours the night before, so he sat patiently waiting to start his last exam of the year.

He always listens to music before class, he said, so the final exam should be no different.

“I’ve never been nervous about finals. I just take them,” he said.

As others took swigs from miniature Dasani bottles or Von Dutch Energy Drinks, sophomore Bren McMullen tried to squeeze in a few extra minutes of studying.

Like Long, he wasn’t very nervous. He studied four hours for the test, but a little extra time wouldn’t hurt.

“I probably won’t learn anything new,” he said, “but it won’t hurt to just read over and try to remember a little more.”

After the test, McMullen said he probably wouldn’t do much.

“I have a math exam on Friday,” he said, “so I’ll probably just study.”