It is the final hurdle that needs to be cleared before the long awaited 3 month summer break. All around campus people are scurrying between the library and lectures, trying to manage their time efficiently so as to make the most of the facilities at their disposal in preparing for the final exams.

With so much preparation needed for these exams and dissertations surely sport must take a back seat? My answer to this question is no. If anything sport should be continued at the same intensity and frequency to how it has been throughout the rest of the year. There is obviously a need to prepare for your exams and dissertations, as after all they are very important and can potentially determine the path you take towards a successful future. However, sport will not inhibit you from achieving your maximum potential.

In fact it can be beneficial to you. It can act as a way of relieving the stress which is built up through the constant pressure we put on ourselves to revise and research. It also enables you to keep healthy and fit during a time where sitting and reading, interspersed with sessions of eating, drinking and sleeping, could leave you looking like our highly regarded current AU President, Mr Henry Potter.

It also enables you to not become a social recluse during the best part of the year for socialising. Many of the AU Sports teams and societies pride themselves on the results they achieve on the pitch, but they also pride themselves on the success and prominence of their socials which usually take place on a Wednesday night. For one night of the week, Portswood high street becomes alive with students dressed in various AU Sports teams social shirts (including the rather camp pink tennis shirts that are an ever present sight in a particular corner of Clowns), along with the token sports club who have decided to bring out the chequered trousers and jumper for a round of pub golf. This activity will only get better and more prominent as the nights get warmer during this summer term, so is a perfect example of why sport should be carried on during the examination period.

For some sports teams, including the prestigious Southampton University Cricket Club of which I am a proud member, the summer is the time where the club calendar is full of fixtures. For these teams, a lack of interest in sport during the examination period would be detrimental to the club. In past years however, a lack of interest has obviously not been the case. Using the cricket club as an example, there are five teams which are regularly playing on the same day at various oppositions. Of these teams, four are in BUCS, with the First XI being in the Southern Premier division which is a very high level of cricket. The same is reciprocated across many other sports to around about the same degree of success. This obviously shows a commitment to sport during the summer term by a large number of people, and I strongly believe that the people who are committing to sport are not any less prepared for their exams than the people who revise constantly for four weeks.

If sport is not your forte, a few hours in the gym or the swimming pool will enable you to relax, and will rejuvenate and refresh you ready for the next batch of revision. Even if you are one of these people that need to take the bus from the Jubilee Sports Centre to the Interchange, then firstly I must ask what have you been doing in the Jubilee Sports Centre? Secondly, sport can still be influential during the examination period, not in a playing capacity, but in one of the spectator. Most of the pubs around will be showing sport pretty much from the moment they open until they close due to the wonderful invention that is Sky Sports. So why not have a break from revision, and enjoy the huge array of sports which are available to you. My advice is not to abandon sport during the forthcoming examination and dissertation period, but merely fit it into your busy schedule - it is enjoyable and can be beneficial to your studies.