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Midterm Meltdown

If only the information bestowed upon students by their professors would somehow stay latched into their minds permanently, allowing a smooth transition into midterm exams.

Unfortunately, with 15 to 18 credits, clubs, sports, jobs, Greek organizations, social lives, and (somehow) sleep, this process is not easy.

With midterm exams right around the corner, students are panicking about how to succeed on these upcoming tests.

In an article found in Faculty Focus, it was shown that approximately 45 percent of students admitted to cramming for exams, almost half the campus. The definition of cramming, “the practice of working intensively to absorb large volumes of informational material in short amounts of time,” brings to mind the classic image of a stressed out student sitting in a mound of textbooks in a library, feeling completely overwhelmed.

While the late night study sessions may be unavoidable, there are some other ways to study and retain the information needed for both the test, and the long run.

As hard as it can be to pencil in study time, it’s viable to get that extra time in. In the wake of midterms, Stephanie Merlis, a sophomore business marketing major, has had five exams this week. While many of us would be losing our minds, she kept it together.

Merlis, reveals that her key to studying success: “I like Luke McKinny, a writer for the website Cracked and former psychics student, found that “one thing I noticed without fail was that students would ‘study’ by piling up work all around them, then sit there wasting time and being miserable until the clock said they were finished.”

I too am guilty of this, I pack up all my textbooks and notebooks, add a few granola bars as provisions, and head off to squirrel away in the library for hours before exams. In the sacred studying space, I still manage to accomplish next to nothing.

McKinny adds, “In times of stress, the student can spend over an hour crafting the perfect study nest to defend itself from guilt. It all has to be just right, from lighting to coffee, because every single thing that needs to be fixed is another reason not to actually study yet. Some students spend longer trying to reach the perfect setup than Buddhist Monks spend trying to reach Nirvana, and with less tangible results. Students get so wrapped up in the idea of studying that they distract themselves from the actual act of studying.”

McKinny also stresses the importance of engaging the material, rather than just flipping through your notes or staring at a textbook page, “Do something, anything, which tests your knowledge or makes you actually think, then use your notes to find out what you’d forgotten. Then do the problem again, instead of sitting and reconfirming, ‘Yep, I sure can read this language all right!’

Some students have realized the negative effects of cramming and are adapting to better study habits. Natorye Miller, a sophomore political science major, contends that “I do not study for exams because when I cram, I don’t study ahead. I get more stressed out because I’m worried about the professors’ guidelines and the grade I think I’m going to get.”

By squeezing in study hours over a longer period of time, Miller has more success on her exams. That being said, she doesn’t necessarily think exams are a good thing.

“I don’t think exams determine the knowledge of students,” Miller points out. “I feel the participation a student does in class better determines that.”

Another thing students put off during exams week is sleep. Alexandra Sifferlin at TIME reports that “[students] who stay up late at night cramming are more likely to have academic problems the following day, doing poorly on the test they studied for.”

Sifferlin points out that students increasingly give up sleep for studying as the get older, so the problem compounds over time. While we as students feel we are getting in all that extra study time by staying up until dawn, the bloodshot eyes and endless K-Cups do more harm than good.

Andrew J. Fuligni, a professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences at UCLA, has done many studies to test the effects of lack of sleep on students’ grades. “If you’re really sacrificing your sleep for that cramming, it’s not going to be as effective as you think, and it may actually be counterproductive,” he explains.

As midterm exams approach us, we students have to start preparing as soon as we can. If we study a little bit every day, engage our material rather than just flipping through notes, and get plenty of sleep, we can nail our midterms and get back to having fun.

IMAGE TAKEN from blog.tutorhub.com