Usually found around midterms & finals. It’s a widely understood fact that prior to Hell Week, professors meet & discuss ways to purposefully create schedules with 3 midterms on the same day you’ve 2 papers & a group project due, all in addition to your normal homework load & extra-curricular activities.

In Hell Week, many students' imaginations run wild in an attempt to rationalize 'why this is happening to them.' Some will consider dropping out & going to work 'full-time' at the Subway they currently work at. Others (most, in fact) will go through 4 stages during hell week:

Denial: You party the weekend before, procrasturbate instead of writing your paper & spend time pointlessly stalking everyone you never knew on facebook; you can always cram, right?

Anger: You begin to look at what you need to study or write. How could they assign this much material? Are they insane? This is inhumane-you should contact the ACLU!

Fear: It's the night before your first tests, & you're freaking out. You've no idea why there’re 1,052 ways to conjugate this word in that stupid-ass-language & you really don't care what the hell a derivative is. What're your parents going to say when you tank these tests? Shit it's 11:30pm & the fuckin unstarted paper is due after those exams!

Acceptance: In the final minutes leading up to the tests you finally realize all you can do is bend over your desk & let the subjects you despise so much violently violate you in the worst ways imaginable.
Tyler: Ugh, I have 3 midterms, 4 papers, and 3 group projects due this week.

Karl: Welcome to Hell Week
by TPaav November 17, 2009
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The week leading up the opening night of a theatrical performance.
Signs of hell week:
-Begging your teachers not to assign big tests/assignments during said week
-Not studying or preparing at all for the tests/assignments that get assigned anyways
-Not talking to people in the cast/crew during school because you know you're going to see them for hours after school anyways
-Stealthily dancing behind the curtains....come on, you know you do it!
-By Wednesday, it is nessecary to bring air freshener into the dressing room and the person who does is a hero
-Losing part your custume at some point during the week
-Some one will cry
-If you're not a theatre kid, then it's easy to tell the people who are because they're falling asleep in class
-Wearing your production T shirt all week
-If you're smart enough to stock up on food before rehearsal...you better hide it!
-You're used to the squeaks and other horrible noises that the microphones make during the first few days
-By the end of the last performance, everyone is family and most cry
Lead: This...*snif*...was...*snif*...the most amazing...*snif*...thing ever! *sob*
Extra: *hugs* *cries too*
Supporting role: Hell week is so worth it!
by defygravity137 April 19, 2011
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Commonly used to describe a situation in which a person spends a long period of time forgoing sleep and sometimes other necessities to prepare for something. Hell Week gets its origins from the Fifth week of the First Phase of BUD/S (for those of you who don't know what it is, it is the training course that Navy SEALs go through) where for five days, they are subjected to living hell where with no sleep, they are required to perform strenuous physical activity in combat conditions at Olympic standards.
1. Before Hell week, there were 102 SEAL candidates, but afterwards, there were only 50.

2. Before the enormous final, an academic hell week began. There was non-stop studying, there seemed to be an unwritten law against sleep, and the neighborhood Starbucks made incredible amounts of money.
by TheFrogmanFromHell September 13, 2009
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The inagural week of all Greek organizations (fraternities) in which the new members (pledges) are rigorously abused and tortured as an endurance test. If the pledges make it through Hell Week, then they can become full-fledged fraternity members.

If none of this applies to you becuase you think that frats are stupid and infantile, please see GDI.
"I had to know all about the leader or else they would've killed me in Hell Week."
by Jamie Musshorn October 31, 2005
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The week of a theatrical performance during which the cast and crew practically live at school and communicate to thier families soley through notes.
Sorry, I can't interact socially, I have to stay at school until 10 today! It's hell week for Brighton Beach Memoirs.
by Fumy November 2, 2005
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Typically one week of extensive mental and physical training in order to get in shape for actual conditions. Another form of initiation or re-socialization.

Usually military related, sports teams and fraternities and sororities.
The football coach recommended to stay hydrated because there would be limited water breaks during hell week.

Once off the bus, the army recruits were stripped of their personal belongings and it was followed by intense interval training as a hell week introduction.
by WarDubO February 9, 2009
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That week right before a break when every teacher decides that they need to throw in just one more test, quiz, and/or project, because their subject is obviously superior to the others. Also known as Week from Hell.
Person 1: Geez! I have 3 tests and a quiz this week, and I have 2 major projects due!
Person 2: Welcome to Hell Week.
by woodsidevaulter February 9, 2009
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