The educational style into which we have fallen makes final exams a part of the process. But I can assure you that most professors are just as stressed by the process as you are. I am yet to meet a professor who looks forward to the opportunity to trip up a student by means of a single, difficult to complete, final. They, like you, are more concerned with the development in thinking process and the increases in the ability to understand.
Perhaps remembering that the professors have been in the classroom with you all semester because they care about you and they want you to learn and they seek your success will help you as you face the stress of turning in to them that final. Remember that they are a bag of stress, too. And find it in your heart to see their humanity, thus allowing them to respond to your own.
In re-thinking the sermon I preached yesterday, I realize that my mantra "God is Here!" should have been more directly applied to the week you are facing. Know that God is here - that God will be with you. The concrete expressions of that presence include a) a non-anxious presence (Jesus is often called "The Prince of Peace"), and b) a reminder that in light of all eternity, what is a few hours in an exam room, or even a few weeks in a course? Your person-hood is not determined by how well you do in your exams.
God is here! God is with you. And so are God's followers. Draw strength from one another; draw calm from those who are aware of the larger picture of your life and the eternity into which you have been called.
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