1. Start Now
Everyone knows “Midterm Season” is the ambiguous period of time on the hilltop lasting from early September all the way through the last day of classes. So that’s why it’s better to start while you’re ahead. Study a little bit everyday – even if it’s just reviewing what you did in class that day, it’ll make revision so much easier.
2. Organize
Although starting early helps, it’s crucial that you make a study schedule when cramming for midterms. You don’t want to leave it all till the last minute (which seems to be a trend here at Georgetown) and in order to keep your mental sanity it may be nice to space out an hour of work each day leading up to a test as opposed to pulling an all nighter the night before going crazy on Lau 3.
3. Study with Study Breaks
Studying continuously can get very frustrating and also quite tiring. Retaining information requires a lot of rehearsal and constant attention and in turn can actually be quite physically demanding as well. Make sure you schedule in time to take breaks whether it’s to go out with
your friends for a meal or simply just to take a nap and start over when you wake up.
4. Rest, Relax, and Recharge
Sleep is the most important thing you need during midterm season! This semester in a psych class I learnt that if you want to retain any information in your long term memory that you need to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep for the information to be encoded. We come to college to be lifelong learners so aid that process by taking care of your body, especially the night before a test!
5. Test Yourself
The best way to memorize information is to test yourself. Make flashcards, quizzes or anything else that helps you test the information which you’ve learned up until this point and revisit the stuff you get wrong. Try and understand if it was a testing error or if you’re having trouble retaining the information and if so, how can you fix the issue? (Attend a review session, ask a friend, reread the chapter – the list is endless.)
6. Remember This Isn’t the End of the World
Remember that what matters most at the end of the day is how hard you tried and if you actually feel as though you learnt something out of the process. So if you don’t do great on a midterm, guess what! It’s not the end of the world. The sun will rise again tomorrow and you’ll gave the chance to do it all over again.