A Guide to Midterm Madness

It's Midterm Madness at BC and while I am done with any formal testing until next month, I know a number of student who are smack dab in the middle of the storm. How does one deal with the stresses of BC Midterm Week? By realizing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Whether you are a prospective BC student or a current BC student, there are methods to the madness:

1. Get your priorities straight, and ahead of time. I've taken on well-known but seldomly applied strategy of one of my roommates with impeccable studying habits: simply plan at least a week ahead of time a plan of attack for each subject. Planning ahead of time also means starting to study ahead of time so when it comes to....
2. Attending office hours (or review sessions)...you have time to develop questions to be answered by professors and/or TAs. Office hours are a great way to get more help on concepts. Every professor I've had held multiple office hours or review sessions in preparation for midterms. I've never walked out of a review session feeling more confused than when I walked into one.
3. Logging in library/studying time. If you know you can't study in the common room with the very likely possibility of being distracted, don't hesitate to make the however undesirable a trip it is to the library. Bapst Library is silent 24/7, not to mention open 24/7. O'Neill has comfortable chairs, natural lighting, and relaxing views of the city. Brighton Library is rather obscure and therefore less crowded. Clear a few hours everyday for studying wherever you study best.
4. Focus on practice problems. Often times, professors give out certain review problems to focus on, or topics that are "very important." Remember them. Most of the time, test questions come straight from the review problems or the "focus" areas that he/she makes a point to distinguish.
5. Don't forget to eat....or sleep for that matter. Your mood, stress level, and retention of knowledge significantly increases with an active digestion system and an well-functioning brain.
6. Keep calm. Easier said than done, yes. However, if you have a studying plan all set (see #1), there is no reason to overly stress about a single midterm. Take a break, walk outside, go to the Plex, grab fro-yo from Lower, play some basketball with friends. A personal favorite study break of mine are wide variety of yoga classes at the Plex. I give yoga credit for all the times I gotten a "Why are you so calm?" accusation from friends.

Whether or not you go to BC, there are ways for dealing with any stressful situation you may come across--from testing to that stressful applying for college/taking AP classes/balancing my extra-involved student life with school period that was junior to senior year.

Good luck with college searches!!
Any questions, please feel free to email me at fangda@bc.edu

'Til next time...

-Dara (CSOM '13)