Liquor, Howls and Pinball Help Students Relieve Exam Tension

As reading period drew to its caffein-filled close, students talked yesterday about the many ways to cope with the pressures of paper deadlines and the exams that begin 24 hours from now.

"I get really drunk--B & B or Tequila every other night," said one student who had dozed off in the basement of Lamont over her Chem 20 notes. She recommended intense partying, followed by six hours of sleep and then re-starting the cycle.

One student let it all out in the Leverett House Library last week by treating her classmates to a sustained scream. Not surprisingly, she said she felt better afterwards.

Sublimation

A majority of those surveyed said they get their minds off school work by activities like running, swimming, indoor nerf-football, foosball and pinball games.

To avoid the pressure of seeing other students apparently getting their work done, one person said he slept all day and studied all night with a mid-evening pinball-break at 1 a.m. Pinball ranks as such a popular way to ease the eyes and mind that Quincy House has rented an extra machine for the duration.

Some students working at Hilles Library said a troop of balloon dancers from Adams House floated through the stacks on Saturday, lightening the atmosphere.

Several students said they look to the arts, especially music, for respite. "Strauss waltzes are the answer," a freshman said yesterday.

Others blamed the tensions of reading period for weight put on. "I eat more than usual," a Quincy House sophomore said. "In fact, during my freshman reading period I gained seven pounds." The student said she relieved herself by making frappes at the House grill until she felt better.

Non-Sublimation

Movies also turned out to be a popular asylum for exhausted minds. One junior said she passed the time at "Misty Beethoven," which played at Quincy House over the weekend.

A pre-med of the class of 1976 recommended her successors "work until 11 p.m.; smoke your brains out until 1:30, and be up and at your desk by 8:30. I wrote my thesis that way." She begins medical school in the fall.

One student, leisurely studying his notes, did not complain. "As a senior I really don't feel much tension--I just sit back and enjoy it," he said.