Midterms during college are extremely stressful, especially if you’re an incoming freshman learning how to take the tests. You have new professors, new assignments, new ways to study and it’s all so overwhelming. Additionally, you don’t have your custom support system. While all of these factors make midterms stressful and overwhelming, there are many ways to destress that will make sure you get through midterms unscathed.
Set up a good study group
Personally, the way I ensure that I understand the material is by getting quizzed on it or trying to teach it to someone else. Both of these things make it so I get tested on how well I understand the material. This makes being in a study group so important. It forces you to work through the material with others and allows you to ask questions whenever you don’t understand the material. Your peers can be an automatic dictionary of information that’s more interactive than Google.
Take intermittent breaks
Normally when you’re stressed and in need of a cram session before midterms, everyone thinks the best way to learn the material is to consistently study for hours on end without taking a break. While this is partially true, it’s also so important to take consistent breaks throughout studying to ensure that your brain has time to take a break and process the information that it’s taking in. This allows you to power through studying and helps avoid that crash that normally happens about three hours into studying.
Find good study spots
With a campus as big as the University of Illinois, there’s an ample number of libraries and cafes that can be used to study, so it’s really difficult to find your “favorite” study spot. However, when you find a study spot that fits all of your criteria, quiet or loud, populated or empty, it makes the overall studying experience much more enjoyable. It makes it so you’re excited to go study and look forward to leaving the house and exploring new possibilities for study locations. Personally, I’m in civil engineering, so I always enjoy studying in Grainger Library at the Espresso Royale, with a coffee in hand and a little bit of chaos around me.
Find your best study time
While most college students will swear that they study best at night when everyone’s asleep and they’re able to go grind out all of their homework at a silent library, that may not be the case for all students. I know I personally prefer working at 7 a.m. rather than 7 p.m. as my brain is at a higher functioning rate and I can get my work done a lot faster. While it takes a lot of self-discipline to wake yourself up at 7 or 8 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, the rewarding feeling after all of your work is completed is unmatched.
Every student will have a hard time in midterms, but the best way to ensure success is to set up a good routine and figure out what works best for you!