A few times during the academic year, subject rivalries are forgotten, and we are all in a collective state of pain and suffering. Now is one of those trying times: midterm season.
Every student I know has a love-hate relationship with the halfway point of the semester. On one hand, the end is in sight, and you know that in a month or so, you will be back to getting a good night’s rest and binge-watching shows without guilt. On the other hand, you know that for at least the next week, you will be hunched over your laptop pretty much 24/7, and living off snacks because you don’t have time to make a proper meal. Taking a daily multivitamin can only do so much when all your nutritional intake consists of Haribo Starmix and granola bars. Not exactly the best of brain foods…
Whether you love your degree or not is irrelevant – midterms are stressful, and that might be the one thing STEM and humanities students can actually agree on. Fueled by caffeine and delusion, you are led into a false sense of security, which leads you to the first stage of the midterm cycle: optimistic motivation. You tell yourself that you will start your assignments as soon as they are released, and yet… here we are. Questioning if you should just leave it all behind and go live in an isolated cabin on a remote island is stage 2, followed by a crash out, the temptation of marrying rich, and finally, acceptance, in which you just submit what you have and tell yourself the lie every student mutters under their breath: ‘I don’t care what I get, I just want to pass.’ You care, just admit it, it’s fine.
At least in the second semester, we have a university-wide reading week. In my experience, I am trapped in a never-ending cycle of worrying about my midterms, then worrying I’ve spent too long worrying, and then worrying I don’t have time to do anything. Having a week off greatly reduces that particular anxiety.
Being a student who belongs to 2 schools makes it slightly worse, because if you happen to be one of the lucky ones to have a first semester reading week, there is no guarantee that those will be the same week, so you’ll be in my position of having a weird combination of classes and breaks for weeks. I cannot tell if I love or hate it yet. The only thing I can compare it to is a situationship.
Midterms are equally important in the first and second semester, so why don’t we have a formal reading week the first time around? The ‘will they – won’t they’ game is one much more fit for gossip, less so for guessing if you will have a scheduled time off. Just hard launch and make it official already. Please.
It’s tough out here. Very much surviving, not thriving.
“University of Edinburgh Main Library” by oosp is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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The 10th Circle of Hell – Midterms
A few times during the academic year, subject rivalries are forgotten, and we are all in a collective state of pain and suffering. Now is one of those trying times: midterm season.
Every student I know has a love-hate relationship with the halfway point of the semester. On one hand, the end is in sight, and you know that in a month or so, you will be back to getting a good night’s rest and binge-watching shows without guilt. On the other hand, you know that for at least the next week, you will be hunched over your laptop pretty much 24/7, and living off snacks because you don’t have time to make a proper meal. Taking a daily multivitamin can only do so much when all your nutritional intake consists of Haribo Starmix and granola bars. Not exactly the best of brain foods…
Whether you love your degree or not is irrelevant – midterms are stressful, and that might be the one thing STEM and humanities students can actually agree on. Fueled by caffeine and delusion, you are led into a false sense of security, which leads you to the first stage of the midterm cycle: optimistic motivation. You tell yourself that you will start your assignments as soon as they are released, and yet… here we are. Questioning if you should just leave it all behind and go live in an isolated cabin on a remote island is stage 2, followed by a crash out, the temptation of marrying rich, and finally, acceptance, in which you just submit what you have and tell yourself the lie every student mutters under their breath: ‘I don’t care what I get, I just want to pass.’ You care, just admit it, it’s fine.
At least in the second semester, we have a university-wide reading week. In my experience, I am trapped in a never-ending cycle of worrying about my midterms, then worrying I’ve spent too long worrying, and then worrying I don’t have time to do anything. Having a week off greatly reduces that particular anxiety.
Being a student who belongs to 2 schools makes it slightly worse, because if you happen to be one of the lucky ones to have a first semester reading week, there is no guarantee that those will be the same week, so you’ll be in my position of having a weird combination of classes and breaks for weeks. I cannot tell if I love or hate it yet. The only thing I can compare it to is a situationship.
Midterms are equally important in the first and second semester, so why don’t we have a formal reading week the first time around? The ‘will they – won’t they’ game is one much more fit for gossip, less so for guessing if you will have a scheduled time off. Just hard launch and make it official already. Please.
It’s tough out here. Very much surviving, not thriving.
“University of Edinburgh Main Library” by oosp is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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