Midterms are on the rise for some and about to end for others, making this time an odd limbo for everyone on campus. But still, we endure. We here at Concordiensis are also going through it, and this is a guide to make sure you won’t age a million years by the time this week is done.
Plan Ahead!
Nobody likes to hear it, take it from a routine procrastinator, but the chance of you forgetting you had a midterm for a class is a lot lower when you plan ahead. Pick your poison! Notion, Google Calendar, and Todoist are all wildly popular for their ability to structure every aspect of your day, from the haphazard study plan to chronicling all of your syllabi. The gigantic Excel spreadsheet with all your deadlines is also incredibly helpful, as daunting as it may seem initially, and that satisfaction of checking off all the things you had planned for the day is unbeatable.
Fine-Tune Your Study Habits
That Pomodoro method of scrolling your phone for 25 minutes and reading one passage for 5 minutes does nobody good and is very, very unhelpful. Try locking your phone for just thirty minutes (which is barely any time at all if you think about it), and look at your book. Try sounding things out, maybe even teaching the concepts to an imaginary class if it’s a subject like economics, biology, or history. If what you’re grappling with is more problem-based, like physics, chemistry, or math— I am so sorry to say this, but the only way you’re ever going to improve is understanding the concept and then doing a million practice problems until you are certain that you have the topic down pat. It’s foolproof for a reason!
Put Down the Celsius
I love it, you love it, we all love it. Is it as good as sleep on your third all-nighter this week? As much as your exhausted brain wants to say yes to that question, you know in your heart that that fact is not true. There is no way the brain is functional after the fifth Red Bull/Celsius/Quadruple Shot/Insert Caffeine Here and absolutely no sleep, even though your hands are jittery and you can physically feel your neurons firing. Even closing your eyes is beneficial for your body, so make some time (even if it’s fifteen minutes) to let your body get some rest instead of camping out at the library. It’ll go a long way, I promise.
These three tips are just tiny things that you can do to make midterms ever so slightly more bearable, and a small way to go to help your body from collapsing on itself due to stress, so make sure you take a bit of time to unwind after this storm is over. Although midterm season is daunting, and sleep seems like a distant memory, you got this. With that, we wish you all the best of luck this midterm season!
