Podcast TRT 6:53

TRANSCRIPT

Reporter: As the end of the school semester approaches, do you ever feel like the world is coming to an end? Do you stress about school, grades, and performance? Well, the good news is, you’re not alone. Welcome to the podcast. I’m Joseph Cacciatore, and today we are looking at mental health struggles, especially how students are feeling around finals time.  

Finals can be super stressful, as it can make or break a student’s semester. For sophomore computer scientist major, Yabe Benumbru, he felt that stress for a certain class during his freshmen year in CU.   

Yabe Benumbru: There was a class called CSCI 1300, and going into that class, I knew a lot of upperclassmen that went through the class. They were saying it was super hard, stuff like that. For me, it was difficult, but I didn’t feel the difficulty that they were talking about until the end, because the final was really stressful for me, but the main thing that was really stressing me was the final project they had for that class. The way that class worked was you do the project, and then you get interviewed on that project, and you have to explain said code or whatever to a TA, and that was really stressful because I never really did that in high school. 

Reporter: Yabe is not alone in his thoughts. The stress of finals can take a toll on a student’s mental well-being. According to a study done by the American College Health Association, more than 85% of students report feeling overwhelmed by everything, especially during finals. Whether it’s the need to pass the class, maintaining GPA, or just feeling burnt out and wanting the semester to be over with, students feel the pressure of finals. I spoke with junior, Grace Blitz, a Strategic Communication major, as she shared what she’s feeling around her finals.  

Grace Blitz: Um mostly just like burnout. I’m ready to be done with school. Um, I’m not, like, super anxious about any of them because I feel like I am well prepared, um, but I will say, like, school in general right now, I think it’s hard when it’s nice out, and, you know, you want to be outside with all your friends, and you’re kind of stuck in class. Um, so I’d say I’m just ready for school to be done.

Reporter: The difference between college-level testing and high school level testing, becomes very noticeable.  

Benumbru: I feel like a major realization I had compared to high school and college is the amount of hours you put in doesn’t always correspond to the grade that you’re wanting. For example, if I pull off an all-nighter in high school, I’d do fine on an exam, but here there’s a real chance I could do all that and still barely pass or even fail. 

Reporter: Finding ways of distraction while also making sure you properly study and prepare for finals can go a long way towards not feeling overwhelmed by finals.  

Blitz: I definitely take time to just chill and not think about school 24-7. Um, so that helps a lot, like, hanging out with my friends and just allowing myself to be, like, I don’t have to worry about finals right now, but then when I’m at school and I’m studying, I actually study, like, I actually dedicate time to look over my stuff, don’t get distracted by my phone, stuff like that.  

Benumbru: I think, uh, the major thing is that most of the work is on you. Teachers are not like, uh, giving you study guides all the time and, you know like telling you exactly what’s going to be on the exam. Um, it’s really on you to like, keep up in class and like learn the content and like, uh, be ready to like, not see something that you studied, um, not on the exam. 

Reporter: A 2024-2025 Healthy Minds study found that students reported having depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and loneliness during their school years. This was a study done with over 84,000 students at 135 different colleges and universities. What causes students to feel this way? To find out, I spoke with Bradey Disbrow from the Counseling and Psychiatric Services at CU Boulder.  

Bradey Disbrow, Counselor: I think it just depends on each individual,  I think definitely at this time of the year, um, burnout is a significant proportion of what we’re seeing,  so people, um, feel they’re more on edge,  they’re oftentimes losing motivation to engage in activities, especially schoolwork, when it’s most important  to them to be engaged, and their motivation energy levels are at their lowest.  Uh, they’re often agitated, like I said, and ready, ready for some separation after giving months of their time to focusing on their classwork.  

Reporter: Like how symptoms can vary with every person, no matter the year. 

Disbrow:  For freshmen or first-year students, um, there’s, there’s more concern about their capability or ability to pass something, and so it really is about building some of the tools to be successful in academics, and talking more so about what are some of the pieces, whether it be communicating with faculty or how to study, how to be surrounded by people that are studying, working on maybe some of those more foundational skills, because there’s a lack of confidence in just the ability to do it.

Reporter: While freshmen and underclassmen might be worried about how to prepare for their first-ever college finals, Disbrow also mentioned how upperclassmen are also having their own common struggles  

Disbrow: Upperclassmen oftentimes are more so kind of struggling with the motivation piece.  Um, there’s also layered concern about future and how performance here and now will impact, you know, more immediate future of graduation and finding work, and so with those students, it’s often about how do we separate some of those larger concerns from the here and now. 

Reporter: Disbrow gives some tips that students can use to combat emotional distress. 

Disbrow: Getting adequate sleep, making sure that we are moving our bodies, finding ways for that anxiety to have releases in physical ways.

Reporter: It’s hard not to feel anxious, stressed, depressed or burnout around finals. If you need help, reach out to the Counseling and Psychiatric Services center at (303-492-2277), with 24/7 service. Thank you for listening. I’m Joseph Cacciatore signing off for today.