There are things in this world that are absolutely amazing. Like soldiers coming home from war, families being reunited after they were separated for years, babies being born, couples getting married, and stuffed-crust pizza. There are also terrible things, like midterms -- a word that none of us want to hear and, worse, that none of us want to say. The only thing worse than midterms are finals, but I won't go into that to spare you at least some of the happiness and peace you have left over from whatever midterms are stealing from you. Although it's easy to get bogged down by all of the midterm-time sadness, I have a few survival tips that can hopefully be helpful and provide you all with a little bit of a study break.
1. Midterms DO NOT determine your final grades. You can still come back from a grade on a midterm, even if you bomb it.
2. Midterms also don't determine your worth. Nothing in school does, even though professors and advisers tend to make us feel otherwise on occasion.
3. The library can be more stressful for studying sometimes, especially if you're someone like me, who hates the library during regular times, and especially during midterms and finals. So if the library isn't for you, that's okay. There are coffee shops and diners galore in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
4. Coffee is your best friend, maybe your only friend, during midterms. Never forget this.
5. Staying up late isn't bad, but not sleeping at all is. If you get some sleep and give your mind and body rest, it will thank you by producing good grades (probably).
6. Study groups are a really good idea and help to take a load of stress off if you are able to actually talk about what you know. You usually figure out that you know more than you think you do.
7. It's so easy to start to stress-eat, and while a little bit of this is totally acceptable during this time, don't go overboard, because it will make you feel worse.
8. Don't wait until the last minute to start studying, and this is coming from a professional procrastinator. If you wait until the night before to start studying information that has been accumulating for half of a semester, there's no way that you can go over all of it and feel confident about it before your midterm.
9. Be confident; you know more than you think you do, and even if you don't know everything, there's no way that you can, anyway, and you are probably doing just fine!
10. Do your readings. This golden rule has literally saved my life this year. I had never done my readings for classes in the past, or when I did, it was much rarer, and my grades have improved this year just by getting into a new habit of doing all of my readings (mostly, anyway).
11. Still give yourself breaks, even during this stressful time when it seems like the only option is to study and then study some more. It is important to still find ways to make yourself happy, because this will reduce your stressing over the test, which can actually be harmful to your performance on the test.
12. Exercising is a great thing during midterms. This gets all of your good juices flowing and is also another great stress reliever. Go run, go to a group exercise class, do yoga (this is AMAZING during test times), and see if it doesn't make you feel a little better, if not a ton.
