How to Deal with Midterm Season
Dealing with midterms whether you are in high school or college is not easy. High levels of stress and constant anxiety may plague you. Here are some tips to help you de-stress while still being productive!
- Planning
A week or two before your midterm is when you should start to create a timeline for how you should study and prepare for your midterm exam. Instead of cramming all of the information the weekend before and dealing with high levels of stress, it is a good idea to plan to study a few topics and concepts every day until the day leading up to your test. This way, you are constantly reviewing your material in little bits daily, and are able to work through hard concepts with more time, and even be able to ask your teacher about ideas and concepts you’re stumped on.
For this, it is a good idea to get a weekly planner, or use the Calendar app that is available on iPhone and Android mobile phones. Doing this allows you to spend a small amount of time each day preparing for your exam, so the day before your midterm, you are simply reviewing all the material you have been studying already, which will help you feel more confident for the exam. This is much better than having high amounts of anxiety because you are studying concepts you have lots of difficulty with, leading to high stress and poor test grades due to fear and a lack of confidence.
- Download Organizational Apps
There are many apps that help you organize your study schedule and timelines. There is an app called Forest. This app lets you set an amount of time where you will not be able to stray away from the app. The incentive is that you are contributing to help plant trees, and if you are off the app for more than 10 seconds, your tree dies. By helping the environment and also ensuring that you are remaining off your phone, you are limiting your number one distraction. It is extremely important to stay off social media and other distracting messaging apps while studying.
- Meditation
Midterms are always a high stress time period for students all over the world. It is important that we learn how to deal with stress, as health is essentially wealth. Taking time to unwind and meditate might be of interest to many students, especially if they have never tried this before. There are many apps, such as Headspace and Calm. They guide you through different exercises that can range from 5 to 60 minutes. These breathing exercises help you relax and focus on your inner self, while forgetting about your problems for a few minutes. This helps calm the nerves which will put you in a better head space to continue getting through the weeks leading up to your midterm.
- Staying Active
While working out may seem like the last thing you want to do when you have to study for midterms, it can actually have a positive effect on your study sessions. It has been shown that exercise can heighten attention span, and help you focus throughout the day. You do not have to have a heavy session, but even a light workout for 20 minutes where you are able to sweat and get your heart rate up does both your body and mind good.
- Getting Sleep
Sleep is a rare importance during midterm season. However, like remaining active, it can aid in your studies. By sleeping, your brain is able to retain and collect the information you have acquired through studying. By not allowing your body to get a proper amount of rest, you are not giving your brain a chance to rest and replenish itself through the night. As such, you will be more frantic and find it harder to retain information and concentrate. Most adolescents require about 6-9 hours of sleep, so try your best to make it a habit to fit that range.
- Creating Incentives
While it is important to make time to study, it is also important to make time to do things that make you happy. Planning a dinner, or a fun short trip with your family or friends after midterm season will give you something to look forward to. If you do not want to make a trip, you can allow yourself to buy that new shirt you have been wanting, or that new pair of shoes. Small incentives allow our brain to feel rewards and pleasure from these. It is a good idea to have something to look forward to after, so you can work harder knowing that the stress will end shortly after the midterms.
For more information and more tips, check out:
https://explorehealthcareers.org/5-ways-to-prepare-for-midterms/ https://studybreaks.com/college/midterm-season/