This is your year. You are taking five classes, actually using your planner for once, active on campus and balancing work and play. You are on a roll…until you see that a storm is on the horizon: your week at a glance in your planner is marked up with red ink and exclamation points. It’s midterm season and with midterms, things can go south very quick. So what is a girl to do during this time? How are you supposed to enjoy football and the weekend when you have heavy hitting 3 tests and 2 major papers due in a week?
First of all, breathe.
If it is your first semester on campus the thought of midterms and the hell weeks they can create may be daunting. You just started to get the hang of this college thing: dealing with assignments, understanding how teachers work and test…now everything feels like it will crash and burn. Instead of dissolving into a frayed nerve of panic, take a deep breath and evaluate what you are in store for.
Many veterans of the dreaded midterm week have gone through the energy draining experience by finding ways of keeping their sanity. Keep yours by looking at your due dates for assignments or test dates; the key here is to get organized and ready sooner than later. Create a schedule in your planner early to start chipping away at studying, project creating and research that you will have to go through in order to get that A for midterms.
If you’re pressed for time, prioritize. Take another look at your classes, and go through your assignments from greatest to least amount of work. If one class requires less work, get it out of the way first so you can have more time for more time-consuming subjects.
Form a study group.
There is this magical app called Group Me that allows you to send group messages to as many recipients as you want. The app is available for iPhones and Android devices in the respective app stores. Get numbers from people in class and form a chat group to get a head start on midterms or have that emergency cram session that we have all been through before. Do not be afraid to ask for help, and if necessary, break the millennial taboo and call your classmates. There is strength in numbers, why struggle alone? You may even find that breakthrough you are looking for.
Utilize Services on Campus.
Auburn University has many opportunities to provide help for their students. Why just rely on your own mind, when you can work with someone who is paid by the university just to help you?
There are resources such as the Miller Writing Center, located in the Cross Cultural Center (formally known as the Multicultural Center), College of Forestry and Wildlife, Auburn Global Office within Foy Hall and RBD Library. The writing center covers any type of writing assignment from essays, research papers (even in foreign languages!) to cover letters. Forming an appointment is easy: create an account and fill out a form to choose the time and place and what you need help with. The tutors are trained and very friendly!
If you can’t seem to get your head around a subject, check out the peer-tutoring Study Partner program Auburn also provides. Study Partners’ main meeting area is on the 2nd floor of RBD library in the Learning Commons, however there are satellite meeting areas throughout campus. List of courses covered and location are provided on their main website.
If that is not enough, go to the source of your current misery: your teacher. Make time for your teacher’s office hours (no matter how early or late) and discuss problems and better ways of understanding or completing the subject for midterms. Teachers provide office hours to help you. Find out your teacher’s office hours via your syllabus or main page on canvas.
Stay Healthy.
In the midst of the tears, shouts of frustrations and multiple cups of coffee (or wine!) make time for yourself in your studies. Stretch. Get up and walk around. Go for a run. Eat a healthy snack. Talk to your friends and watch a movie. Constant, non-stop studying can lead to fatigue and overload which means less retention, make it a priority to take a break and get your mind off the stressful week.
One recommendation is to treat yourself to a stress-relieving massage. On the first floor of the Med Clinic, Auburn offers reasonably priced massage packages in the AU Message suite. The suite runs on the mentality that therapeutic massage is not a “luxury” but a “valuable component of a well-rounded and healthy lifestyle.” They offer a variety of styles including Swedish, Trigger Point, Hot Stone, Reflexology, Table Tai and others. You can schedule an appointment on the phone and learn of more options on auburn.edu/massage.
You got this!
Be it first semester or last, midterms can be a trying time for a girl seeking a degree. Remember that you are a hard worker who is going to be great one day. These little midterms will be a thing of the past, do not allow a couple weeks ruin the semester for you, things will happen but all you got to do (and can do) is the best you can, everything will fall into place.
Take a deep breath and plan ahead or prioritize, get help, and most important: stay healthy. Depending on your chosen program, college is four years, enjoy them and kick butt academically while you’re at it.
Go get em’ tiger!