How to survive midterm season

By Ramiro Bustamante Torres, October 24 2023—

Twice a year students are faced with the longest and hardest season of all — midterm season. Having a successful season depends on both the students’ and teacher’s efforts. Even the most studious student can struggle with studying and understanding the material that has been taught by the same professor for the last 30 years and will not accommodate for anything. Facing these odds, there are still ways to prepare for the worst and come out the other side with a passing grade. 

Make a schedule

Knowing when your exams are in relation to each other and upcoming assignments is half the battle. If you have a calendar, a bullet journal or even just using sticky notes on your desk, marking down the date, time and place of each of your midterms can help you create a study plan and also help you not miss it. The horror stories of missing your midterms or finals can, unfortunately, be true if you’re unprepared. So write it down somewhere you can see it and make alarms and reminders. This also helps if you have two midterms the same day and need to move one, or you need to ask for a day off from work.

Be realistic

When you’re studying, are you someone who gets easily distracted? Find a study spot that has little distractions. This might be a simple fix, but it makes a world of difference to know what works for you when it comes to studying. Studying last minute might work for you but it’s unsustainable and you’ll burn out faster. Even when you have many midterms to study for, it’s better to start studying earlier so you only have to cram three chapters instead of half a semester each time. However fun it would be to sit down at the third floor of TFDL with all your friends to chat, sometimes you might have to sit alone in the basement of Gallagher to get through some course content. 

Get creative

If something doesn’t work for you, try something else. There are so many study spaces to try on and off campus that could work for you. There are also many study methods to try that can have you studying in 30-minute chunks or three hours at a time with breaks in between. Everyone has something that will work for them and it might not be the same method for all of your courses. If listening to death metal while doing math helps, but you need absolute silence when writing a history paper, make sure you set yourself up for success.