'Tis the Season...Of Midterms!

Hello everyone!

I wish I could tell you all that it is the season for Christmas. Snow, sparkling lights, long nights by the fireplace...if you can't tell, I love winter and everything Christmas. Unfortunately, we've got a little while to go still and so I get to tell you instead that it is the season of midterms!

Despite the name hinting at there only being one midterm per term, there are usually 3-4 in all the classes that I've taken - and its time for the first one (some classes call them "quizzes" or just "exams"). One of the poor PHYS 1301W classes already tested today and there are several classes testing next week. So, I'm here to impart some wise advice about studying! Because I'm sooooo good at that...I've got two midterms next week and I'm here...blogging...that tells you about my study techniques. Oops :) Without further ado, here are some of my time-honored tricks about surviving a college midterm:

• When the professor tells you to start studying a week ahead, DO IT! I know what everyone's thinking. A week? That's just overkill! Maybe more like the night before... Trust me, I get it. I did the same thing and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The better alternative is to just start studying early like the prof said. You don't have to do much, just some light review or drilling a couple of questions from a practice quiz. It will make all the difference on that impending exam - especially if you have multiple midterms slotted for the same week.
• Lecture notes, book, pre-lecture questions, etc. When you study, make sure you at least look over most if not all of the material. I'm not saying you should go reread the last four chapters the night before, but if you took notes from the book then look at those or skim through the bolded sections. The lecture notes are equally important. Just flipping through some slides can help trigger something like "oh yeah I should brush up on that". Lastly but certainly not least, every class does something different for checking understanding. In physics, there are pre-lecture questions and lab warm-ups. In chemistry, it's ALEKS or the end-of-chapter homework problems. You get the idea. I highly recommend at least looking over those. I cannot begin to tell you the level of frustration I experienced on my physics final when multiple choice questions from previous exams showed up on there and I had neglected to study those.
• When in doubt, go to office hours! If you have a question, ask it. Most office hours are emptier than you think, especially if you go early. Ironically, I have found that TA's office hours tend to be busier than the prof's office hours so I recommend the latter. Of course, the profs are actually the ones writing the exams usually so they would know what you have to know better than anyone else. Not to mention they're just really cool people and they need social contact too!
• Use your resources. Say it with me, "Use your resources." Remember that pile of links I mentioned in the back-to-school post? Time to break it out! If you need more academic help beyond office hours and the internet (I don't condone cheating but there are some super useful websites if you want to check homework, etc.), then those links are the way to go. Whether its for writing help for an upcoming blue-book exam or just help in a subject, they've got everything.
• Hey, remember those guys you hang out with all the time? Whom you may call your friends? Yeah, ask them. Especially if you share food with them a lot - it's payback time! For all those hours of your lovely company, you can now cash that in for study help. You actually might be quite surprised at what level of aid you might find from the least likely of sources. Plus, misery does love company and freaking out in a group is always more comforting than freaking out by yourself :)
• It's okay to shut down (but only if you get back up and running again). Heaven knows we've all done it. It's the night before and you are frantically cramming in those bizarre looking equations. You keep glancing at the clock and counting down the minutes until you have to take that midterm that determines 25% of your grade. Tick tock. You just can't get this last thing to click. Tick tock. What if you can't do this? Time to fake your own death and move to Mexico... My anxiety levels are rising just writing this. We all have days where we feel like we can't do it. Sometimes getting up over the next rise is just oh-so-difficult and even though you desperately want to, you just...can't. So take a break. Cry if you have to. Punch a pillow (not a sibling! A pillow! Punching pillow pets are not acceptable). Go for a run. Crawl into a blanket burrito and eat chocolate. Go on a rant about a completely unimportant topic. Scribble an angry cloud of abstract fury. Everyone has those low times; the important thing is to remember that while life has lows, life also has highs. You are so much better at everything than you think you are and I for one, KNOW WITH UNWAVERING CERTAINTY that you are more than capable of conquering these pesky midterms.
• Take care of yourself. Get lots of sleep. Eat lots of good food. Try not to stress out too much. Worrying won't change the outcome. Studying might, and so always focus on doing your absolute best and don't worry about what might go wrong.

Here's a kind of reassuring fact: in most classes, the final is worth a bigger chunk of the grade than an individual midterm exam. In some classes, the final can take the place of a midterm if the score on the midterm is lower. The point is, it is not the end of the world if this test doesn't go your way. As PSEO students, we tend to be high achievers and we tend to be perfectionistic students. Life doesn't always work out according to plan and the sooner we all get used to that, the better off we'll be. That doesn't mean you should blow off all your midterms. Having solid midterm grades can take the stress off when you get to the finals because there is less pressure to do super duper well to get the grade you want. When I took Honors Chem in high school, I had such a high grade between my homework and unit tests that I only needed a fifty-ish percent on the final to get an A in the class. That's basically me taking an educated guess through the entire thing without studying. 

I wish you all the best of luck, even though I know you won't need it. Please share your exam stories with me in the comments! I want to know how everything went for you.

Here are some complimentary memes :)

Ah Peeta...😆

Until next time!

~Tempest