1) The “I’m going to study really hard for a few hours” stage
You have all colored highlighters lying next to your notes. Your eyes are bright and you’re ready to go. “This won’t be that bad,” you tell yourself as you prepare to settle in for a few hours and study hard. Procrastinating is never the best option and you’re not going to wait until the last minute, this time, to start reviewing. And so it begins. Highlighters are at the ready, and you dive into the material, underlining, highlighting, circling, making side notes, starting a set of flashcards and overall being super productive.
~20 Minutes Later~
2) The “I’m just going to take quick break” stage
You’ve done well and made a great start, but now you’re a little tired of looking at the material. Your hand is cramping and your eyes are squinting, so you decide to take a quick break by grabbing a snack or treating yourself to one Netflix episode. After about 20 minutes, you decide that you can extend your break by possibly another episode or two, maybe three since the test isn’t for another few days. Therefore, the break happens to take the rest of the afternoon and before you know it, the idea comes to you that it just seems better to pick up studying tomorrow. You deserve a break.
~Two Days Later~
3) The “It’s time for me to get serious and cram” stage
Okay, so you didn’t end up studying yesterday like you originally planned to the other day and looking back, you really didn’t get that much done the first day. Now it’s time to cram. You go into overdrive, trying to memorize information faster than you can read it. The test is tomorrow and it’s go time. You go through 30 PowerPoint slides every ten minutes, hoping that you will, at least, retain some of this information. Page after page of notes is read until everything becomes a big blur from reading too much or from the seventh cup of coffee that’s keeping you awake at 2am.
~The Next Morning~
4) The “I’m going to fail” stage
There you are, sitting in class about to receive the test from your professor, thinking you’re going to fail the test and possibly the class because of it. As you look at the first page, your mind becomes blank and you can’t remember any of the information, which seals your fate of failing, but you try anyway. You put down any bit of information you can remember and hope that something you say is right. Before you know it, the time is up and you have to hand it in to the professor. It’s over.
~5 Minutes Later~
5) The “It's time to celebrate” stage
It’s done. It’s over. For better or worse, you turned it in and there is nothing you can do about it now, which means no more stress. You’re finally free. Woohoo! The rest of the week is yours. A great weight has been lifted off of your shoulders and now you can do something fun, maybe go out to dinner or see a movie or anything other than study until the early hours of the morning. You have no more exams for a while. Even the thought of finals week can’t bring you down. It’s time to celebrate making it through midterms.
