For most people, midterms are a time for getting busy, holing up in dorm rooms and gluing ourselves to our desks. And although most people procrastinate at least a little bit, there are those of us who have a very bad case and it has turned into a lifestyle. I am one of these people. My senior year in high school, I never did my homework until the morning before school at the very earliest. In college, I have discovered studying is a little more important. However, my procrastination lifestyle still gets the best of me. Here are my stages of studying as a procrastinator:
1. When the midterm date is announced
So, you get the syllabus and find out when the midterm will be. This is when you decide how long you will be able to avoid thinking about the exam. I usually decide that I have until about two weeks until the midterm to keep my sanity.
2. Forgetting about the midterm
Okay, maybe you avoided thinking about it until the week before. But there's still time, right? The professor reminds the class that the midterm is next week. You start thinking about when you're going to study.
3. Starting to think about studying
You now have five days to study for this midterm. You start telling your friends and family about the fact that you have a midterm, hoping they'll remind you to study. But you haven't actually started studying yet. At least you've acknowledged that you need to. That should count for something!
4. Passing up opportunities to study
Sometimes there are the perfect situations to study, like when your friends are all studying together on your floor, or you are babysitting and the kids are asleep. Yes, that happened to me yesterday. But the family has such a nice TV and there's always a new show to watch on Netflix! Why would you study when this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on a show?
5. Realizing you actually need to start
The midterm is in two days. You've missed half the lectures and have no idea what is going on. There's no way you will do well if you don't start NOW. So, you open the textbook, start reading it, and get very very confused. After an hour of this, you appreciate that you tried and reward yourself with binge watching more Netflix. Hey, you deserve it.
6. Self Acceptance
The midterm is today, and you have two hours to learn as much as you can before taking it. You spend at least half an hour doing something random that you don't need to do. But you start to accept that maybe your study habits aren't very effective, but they probably aren't going to change. At least you've made it this far! You cram whatever you can into that last hour an a half, and you're ready to go.
7. Relief
You finally take your midterm, and although you looked at the entire test with confusion, maybe it'll turn out all right. Maybe...
But once the test is over, this huge burden of the thought of the midterm has been lifted and you can FINALLY go take a nap! (Who are we kidding, you probably took tons of naps during this process.)
