After all your work and preparation, midterm exams have arrived. These exams bring a lot of stress and anxiety, especially the first year. Don’t worry, you’ve got this. You’ve been preparing for this week, so focus, review, and don’t cram.
For this week, remove all distractions that you can. Cancel plans that aren’t necessary and make your study sessions count. Don’t overdo it. A good night’s worth of sleep beats an all-night study session in the library. Additionally, make sure you get some exercise and fresh air. This will help increase focus and relieve stress naturally. Finally, be sure to eat a balanced diet. This also helps you focus and make sure that you don’t have brain fog.
You’ve done the studying and now you have a plan for mitigating stress. Let’s move on to some test taking strategies.
When you first begin the test, look it over. Read all of the questions and answer the obvious questions. After you have marked all the obvious questions, go back to the beginning. Don’t get stuck on the questions that you don’t know. Just mark the questions that you aren’t sure of and move on. When reading a question, make sure you read the entire question and the answers. On multiple choice exams, you can usually eliminate an option or two that are obviously wrong. If you must guess, this elimination will at least increase your chances of being correct.
For essay questions, create an outline to stay organized. If there are also multiple choice questions, they may have some information you can use as ideas or reminders for the essay, so be sure to read them before writing.
Exam anxiety is a real thing that often occurs before or during the exam. When you notice that your anxiety is building, take a deep breath, you’ve got this under control. Take a moment to focus on your breath and settling down. When you finish the exam, spend a few minutes reviewing your answers before submitting.
When you have finished all your midterms, go celebrate! You’ve worked hard and have earned a break. Don’t worry about the exams anymore, there is nothing you can do about them now. So, relax and enjoy a break until the second half of the term begins. And congratulations and making it through midterms!
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