<p>I find that the people freaking out about finals generally fall into two categories:</p>
<p>1) They haven’t really learned the material all semester and suddenly have to learn it all in a week or two</p>
<p>2) They struggled in the course throughout the semester despite working hard and the final will make or break them</p>
<p>That’s in general. Obviously there are some cases, like Nikolette said, where a course is poorly designed and the final exam makes up the majority of the grade for the course. There are also folks in programs like pre-med that want to have as high a GPA as possible. At my house, the only roommates I have who are stressed about finals are one who needs to make sure he keeps his acceptance to med school and one who wants to go to vet school. I’m stressed about one more final since I need to do well on it to get a B in the class.</p>
<p>But the average Joe would find himself much more relaxed during finals if he just studies a fair amount throughout the semester so that by the time finals roll around, he’s very familiar with most of the info and just needs to jog his memory a few nights before. And take some comfort in the fact that unless you need to maintain a scholarship or want to go to grad school / professional school in the near future, GPA really doesn’t matter much.</p>