Mid- and final years exams are the annual events when students have the ability to cast off the term ‘Scarfie' and some of its connotations.
These are times when beers are shut firmly in the fridge, textbooks are furtively scribbled across and mogigraphia becomes more prominent due to said scribbling.
During study leave, students have to begrudgingly tear themselves from their bed and make it to one of the six Otago University libraries by 8am, if they want to secure a study spot for the day.
This is said to be easier for mid-year exams due to the chill that has enveloped Dunedin.
The libraries provide central heat and security that so many student flats are deprived of.
Even in the typical socialising areas such as the Link, the chatter of cliques has been replaced with the clatter of keyboards.
With the influx of students, a study space is just as hard to obtain as a figurative space in the already difficult restricted entry courses.
In areas such as the Science Library this fear is increasingly palpable.
However, exam times provide good business around for the shops around campus.
Ordinarily, these shops are usually heavily patronised, but during study leave they experience a further windfall due to replacement pens and copious amounts of caffeine being purchased.
Computer labs are more vigilantly monitored, and students are constantly reminded that those stations are now exclusively for academic work, not social networking sites - the deadliest form of procrastination.
Speaking of which, I need to get back to my studies.