Exam personality profile

It’s a chilly Monday night in mid December on the campus of Bowling Green State University. BGSU appears to be a ghost town.

Many students are crammed inside the campus library. 24 hour quiet hours have been mandated in all dorms and students have their heads buried in various books.

This is the time of the year where seats tend to be filled in classrooms across campus. This constitutes the most stressful time of the semester- finals.

There are five students studying in the Harshman- Chapman lab. A young woman sighs with frustration as she flips a page in her text book.

The lab door swings open and a female standing 4’11’’ walks in. She is wearing red slippers, BGSU brown & orange pajama pants and a blue shirt. Carrying her SpongeBob backpack, she flicks her brunette hair with blond streaks away from her face as she finds her studying destination.

Marie Krupienski, a sophomore student at Bowling Green State University majoring in Tourism, takes a seat at a large table. The younger of two children, she is originally from the east side of Cleveland and is a Mentor High School graduate.

She rustles through her backpack and pulls out neatly organized notes and an Econ textbook that has sections divided by tabs.

“Ugh,” sighs Krupienski. “I dread and love this time of the year. First off, it’s exam week, but at least it’s Christmas season.”

Krupienski is like every other student on campus during this period, except she is taking 18 credit hours and; not to mention, a former Rocket. “Yeah, I’m taking so many credit hours because I lost some when I transferred here from the University of Toledo,” says Krupienski.
Studying, as Krupienski puts it, is essential during exam time. But she also makes time for leisure activities to alleviate the stress exam week can cause the average student.

“I was swimming at the rec and performed ab workouts before I came here,” exclaims Krupienski. “And I also played some Chinese ping pong in Kreisher with a couple of friends.”

“Paralyzer” by Finger Eleven suddenly plays through her cell phone. She answers the call and engages in a ten minute conversation. “Yeah, you didn’t know!” says an animated Krupienski. “I had to get rid of it.”

Krupienski ends her call and puts on her glasses, while pulling a study guide out of a folder. She is focused.

“Yeah that is another thing I did to prepare for finals,” says Krupienski who is referring to her last phone call. “I had to get rid of Facebook. It wasted my time and I could spend that hour doing something productive.”

Krupienski takes a sip of her Aquafina before getting up to access a computer.

“You know looking at a computer screen makes you tired due to rays or something it gives off,” she says. “That’s why you gotta wear glasses because it blocks the rays. That way you won’t be tired studying.”

She starts to type the facebook url address, but then remembers her account is cancelled.

“See?,” she says. “Facebook is addictive.”

She then logs onto the BGSU website to check her email. She logs off the computer after checking her email and walks back to her original seat.

“There are various studying methods I have,” says Krupienski. “These are studying habits I carrying with me for all tests- not just for finals.”

When looking at her textbook, one would notice tabs placed on the side and on the top. “The tabs on the top means I still need to read that section and tabs on the side mean I have already finished it,” clarified Krupienski.

In addition to tabs being there, one would notice each are a different color. “I color code every section for order,” she says.

She then pulls out a stick of spearmint gum. “Would you like a piece?” she asks. “Studies say spearmint gum helps your thinking because it calms your nerves.”

Several students walk in and out of the lab at this point. “I usually do not study in the lab because I am always focused on the door,” laughs Krupienski. “But with printer making noise and people walking through, it creates a little bit of noise.

Krupienski is fond of noise. “You hate it when it’s too quiet,” she says. “It can be quiet, but not too quiet.”

She pulls out another notebook from her backpack and reviews some material. She then begins to write in it.

“I have a separate notebook where I recopy all my notes,” says Krupienski. “It’s a great way to study because it gets into your head better when you rewrite them.”

Sarah Sperling, a 3rd year student who is a Recreation Major and Environmental Education Minor, is a close friend of Krupienski and confirms her friend Maria as having good study habits.

"I don't see Maria as being a book worm or studying continually, because she has to be involved in some physical or social activity at all times,” says Sperling. “Yet, when it comes right down to it, she can sit down, focus, and study productively. She usually does better when she has a study partner or partners."

Krupienski says she and Sperling motivate each other during exam which goes a long way. They each go into an exam mentally prepared due to encouragement they receive from each other.

Krupienski, like many other college students, will have to use her study skills to good use to make it through this stressful period. But with the many study methods she has, getting through exam week will be a breeze.