When the month of October rolls around, students, much like myself, begin to look forward to our favourite week during the fall season. If you haven’t guessed it already, I’m referring to reading week. For most universities in the area, this week is part of the Thanksgiving weekend. Could it be because professors wanted to extend our weekend break and allow for more quality time with our beloved families? Possibly. But it’s more likely that they wanted to avoid having to give us any more days off than they have to.
As I’m sure it’s obvious from the name, reading week is supposed to be an allotted period for students to catch up on their readings to help them study for midterms that are fast approaching. This time can be very stressful for most if not all individuals. Hence why taking a second to remember to manage stress levels is key to avoiding feeling overwhelmed. Throughout the last few years of my university career, I’ve found a few tricks that help me get through these stressful times. The first thing is that to-do lists are your best friend. It can be very intimidating seeing everything you have to do all at once. To avoid that issue, I like to write things down in baby steps. Especially since I work very well with reward systems. This is why being able to reward myself with a small green little check mark next to the task I completed makes getting things done much easier.
Another trick is just a mental reminder. I want you to take a second and list out every single one of your midterm grades you’ve ever gotten, with the exact percentage you received. If you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to name more than three. So yes, midterms do matter and it’s great to care, but it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t do well. In a year from now, you won’t even remember the grade you got. Also, it helps to remember that midterms are essentially just helping your future self out. Most students get very burnt out towards the end of the year. If you put in the work now, and get as many grade points from midterms as possible, in the future you won’t have to stress as much over finals.
End of the day, it’s important to push and motivate yourself. However, having mental breakdowns, or beating yourself up over something isn’t worth it. Just take it one day at a time and remember to take breaks. Best of luck with all to come!