The nature of the (not so) famous midterm

How do students handle the fact that the seriousness of the midterm is soon upon us?

The simple answer seem to be: Procrastination and we don’t

Every semester (or modules) we go through two periods where we question the choices we made in our lives; halfway, right before the midterms, and when the final exams are sneaking up closer. You start to feel the desperation, sweat starts dripping from your forehead and the school seem an awful lot warmer than it did a week ago. Did I do a mistake when I chose to go here? Would i be better off at home? What part of me actually thought this was a good idea? Would my parents be ok with me moving back in? You start questioning everything.

There is no wonder this is happening, to be fair. While I am used to having exams, this takes everything to a completely different level. The midterms are the worst. While finals are stressfull, they are easy to handle, expected. You have worked three months with the single target of getting a good grade on the final. It is like standing on a road having a car coming towards you from a far, luckily you are prepared and get out of the way with style because you saw it coming a long time ago.

Imagine seeing that car three blocks away, it is pretty easy to get away. But then imagine there’s suddenly a bus appearing out of nowhere from the nearest block. It’s coming fast, and it’s coming hard. You never see it coming until it is too late, and end up trying to duck under the bus, laying head down hoping for the best. It does not seem like a good idea, but for so many it is the best solution.

Procrastination

If you are thinking; “but you had time to work on those midterms for weeks”, I will respond with; “We had all these others assignments as well”. We have three other subjects we also have to do assignments in and constantly being prepared for every class we have next day, and then there’s also the social aspect of life that you wanna, at least, be familiar with. However, in hindsight it’s always the procrastination that gets you.

Don’t know what procrastination is? It is when you do everything else but the things you are really supposed to do. You start cooking, making great food regularly, preferably something that is extremely time consuming. The apartment has never been this clean before, because you decide you have to have the annual thorough cleaning, it cannot be postponed. Floors, walls, ceilings, the neighbors apartment, the nearest mall, everything must be cleaned! And if you did not already go to the gym daily? You sure will now.

Two days prior

Two days prior to the midterm, people finally starts to realize the bus is about to hit them. 48 hours at school to learn four weeks of curriculum. Bigger wonders have happened, it can be done. And so starts 48 hours of continuous reading, worrying, coffee, Redbull, trying to find other people in the same misery, and a few power naps. After the 48 hours, you go to the exam, survive, go out, and hope that no one is going to talk about it ever again. Of course that does not happen, but you get yourself through the misery, go home, tell yourself you will start earlier next time, even though you deep within yourself know you won’t, and go to sleep.

Even if you got hit by the bus, ducked under it or actually managed to jump away, it is over, the bus has driven on, and you can go back to worrying about the finals again. In your excessively clean apartment.

Fun fact: 7% of all Americans thinks chocolate milk comes from brown cows.