Seriously, midterms are one of the biggest surprises of the semester. They creep on you and hit you all at once. Midterms basically kill you from two to three weeks, taking up all your time, stressing you out and making you lose sleep. If this is your first go around with college midterms, you get a pass, you actually have an excuse for being so surprised at how much is going on at once. Now the rest of us, (cough, cough, us seniors) have no excuse. Why do we never learn from the previous semesters midterm mistakes and actually plan ahead? Because college, that is why.

1. When you walk into class and your professor starts doing a review for a midterm – an exam that in your head was still weeks away

2. When you whip out that dusty planner and see that you have four midterms, two papers and a group project all in the next two weeks.

3. When you try to start going over all your notes and make yourself a study guide.

4. When you go into deep denial mode and pretend that the midterm really isn’t that close, your professor is just playing games with you.

5. When you pull more than two all-nighters in a row and haven't had a real meal in 3 days.

6. When you think about how easy it would be to just drop out instead of dealing with midterms.

7. When the professor says that there will be extra credit opportunities in the class, and you know you'll need it because of this exam.

8. When you realize how much of your grade rides on this exam.