I can picture myself next week, Amp energy drinks sitting all along my desk, where my papers will be sprawled out across my MacBook keyboard and my lap.

My clock will read 2:30 a.m., my hair will be greasy, my eyelids will be heavy and my roommate will be yelling my name to keep me awake.

Why will I and countless other students be in this condition?

What have I been told ever since grade school by teachers and parents?

To study for whatever test I have a week before it takes place.

After not paying attention to those rules in grade school and only partially getting that concept in high school, I’m in college, and the one place that I need to use that advice more than ever, I can’t.

The answer is simple. It’s because I was given so many tests this week, the week before finals.

If this is the picture that you saw of yourself last semester, and it’s what you predict to be happening again this semester during finals week, there is something that can fix the problem we share.

The solution is dead week.

Dead week takes place the week before finals week, which is the week that we are in right now.

Dead week is something practiced at a number of universities and colleges, such as Stanford University, Georgia Tech, the University of Kentucky, Princeton and West Virginia University.

Dead week gives students an advantage the week before finals by removing any chance of a major test or quiz.

This allows for students to have an entire week of study time, with no other distractions.

An entire week of study time?

You mean to tell me that students at the University of Kentucky and Georgia Tech can relax and focus on their final exams an entire week before they take place?

At the moment, I have a major test this week in two of my classes, and they are both keeping me from focusing on the material I will need to know during my finals.

It seems as if in this day and age, colleges only give students dead ends when we ask what to do during finals.

We are told not to cram, that we should get a good night of sleep and eat a hearty breakfast in the morning.

Been there, done that.

If we study a bit, then get a good night of sleep and wake up and eat our eggs, then we are awake and ready to be tested, but once we get the pencil and paper in front of us, we learn that our energy is about to be wasted by filling in the incorrect bubbles.

If we cram, we stay up until the early hours of the morning studying, and when we get to the test we are falling asleep, and it will lower the grade.

The third option would be to stay awake all night, studying and getting no sleep, and that has never yielded good results for me.

The stress that I and other students feel because of our last minute chances to study isn’t healthy or fair.

In fact, a dead week would without a doubt raise students’ scores.

The higher the student’s score, the better the professors, students, and university look.

My dream situation would be one where students all across Western’s campus can use this week to study in quiet hours in our rooms.

No stress to complicate our studying, and plenty of time to understand the material we need to know.

What would Western’s Student Government Association have to do to make this dream a reality?

They would have to pass legislation that states something similar to the following:

1. Mandatory final examinations in any course may not be given during Dead Week except for laboratory courses and for those classes meeting once a week only and for which there is no contact during the normal final exam week.

2. Major course assignments should be assigned prior to Dead Week, and any modifications to assignments should be made in a timely fashion to give students adequate time to complete the assignments.

3. Major course assignments should be due no later than the Friday prior to Dead Week.

Students should remember that their academic curriculum is their principle reason for being at college and they have a responsibility to study in a timely fashion throughout the entire semester.

So why does Western need to jump on the train and declare the week before finals a dead week?

So that the students here can have less stress, yield better results, and feel better about their performance on their finals.

Who knows, maybe we could all save some money when we don’t need to pay for that Amp energy drink.

This commentary does not represent the opinion of the Herald or the university.