Ah, midterms. Not as stressful as finals, more stressful than basically anything else in your life. (As my calc professor would say, everything else < midterms < finals. Can I get extra credit for including that in an article? Please?)

First of all, whoever made up the term “midterms week” is the biggest liar in the entire world and deserves to have a too-short phone charger for the rest of his/her life. It’s more like “midterms constantly-from-the-third-week-of-the-semester-until-exams-start.”

Regardless of the class, what year you are in college, or what school you go to, the war of midterms is made up of lots of battles. Thankfully, our pals from Pawnee, Ind. feel our pain.

The initial confidence

When you first sit down at the library with a cup of coffee and a to-do list, you feel ready to take on the world.

When you get a 4/10 on the practice test.

…But your best friend/study buddy gets a 3/10.

When you get a 5/10 on the practice test.

…But your friend/study buddy gets a 9/10.

The second surge of confidence.

It's only a practice test, no big deal. You've totally got this. Besides, it's only 2 a.m., perk up!

Trying to convince yourself it’s a good idea to call it a night and get some sleep.

You’re so tired, and your bed sounds soooo nice.

Realizing the next morning it definitely was NOT a good idea.

Oops.

Running into someone when you’re walking home after watching the sun rise from the library.

"Hey, how are you? Wow, you look exhausted! Rough night?”

When you walk into the room, sit down, and open the test.

What does two plus two equal again?

Preparing your acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize.

After how well that went, you will go on to do great things. You should just graduate now. You are a super genius. You are unstoppable.

When you walk out of the exam and start to reassess your post-grad goals a little more realistically.

So it’s possible that a C- on your Intro to Chem exam won’t look great on a med school resume. It’s good to have a backup, anyway.

After the test when people want to talk about it.

“Hey, what did you get for number four? I subbed in tangent of theta for x and then…”

When you get the grade back and you got a solid 0.3% above the class average.

Hey man, above average is above average. Nobel Prize, Shmobel Shmize. Do some cartwheels! Jump up and down! Yell, “Take that, high school math teacher who said I was bad at integration!” You worked hard! You deserve it!!

Getting in bed once all is said and done.

Undeniably excellent.