The first week of class has finally passed; it’s the least stressful week in any term, be it fall, winter, or spring. As someone who just transferred to University of Michigan Dearborn (this is officially my second semester here), I feel there is something to be said about the mindset many university and college students put themselves in. How many times have we heard our instructors say that the first exam is always the lowest grade? Let me answer that question for you: many times. In fact, for a plethora of students this is the accepted norm; that you shouldn’t worry about getting a poor grade on the first exam of a class because everyone does. I don’t hold this rational, and for good reason: it only adds to the already growing stress that I will be facing with every passing assignment and exam.

I don’t think I need to ask any of you to imagine a scenario where you get a less than stellar grade or outright fail the first exam in a class, so I’ll ask that you remember one. Try and remember how you studied, did you push yourself? Did you study every day and keep up with all the material? Here’s something easier: were you very worried about the first exam? If not, then ask yourself this: when you came to take the first exam, and got the results, were you worried and/or shocked then as well? If so, then this is because you were prepared to do horribly on the first exam. To you that was simply the norm, this is what all students would go through and that’s what made it okay. If I were to ask you about your anxiety level going into the second and third exams what would your response be? Perhaps that you were very nervous and were calculating what you needed to get on these exams to either pass or get an A in the class. I can’t tell you enough how poor the situation you’ve put yourself in is, simply because you could’ve easily avoided it.

There’s a reason trainers and competitors never walk into a competition thinking they will lose, the mind is a powerful thing; if you think you’re going to lose, you probably will. You don’t put much effort into the task or competition at hand because what’s the point? You’re probably going to fail anyhow, simply save your energy for the next contest or task that you plan on doing better in. The key word here is, “plan;" the reason you do better on the next exam (which is actually harder than the first) is because you set your mind up for success. This mindset leads you to study more which results in a better exam grade. Although, you could’ve had a better first exam had you studied more efficiently for that one as well. If you just abandoned the idea that your first exam grade will be low, and instead adopted the idea that you will try to get a high grade on the first exam then perhaps your first exam would’ve went by swimmingly. To add, if your first exam had been a success then you would’ve been encouraged to do well on the next exams. So come the final, you aren’t scrambling and panicking about your grade.

This is why I believe that a student must put in his/her mind that he/she will perform well on the first exam, it makes the rest of the semester in that class less stressful than it should be.