Midterms are an extremely complicated sprint of exams, tests, and assignments in the life of any student. As soon as it is this time of the year again, most of the students seem not to care about anything else in the world.
Health is the first one to suffer.
Often, students don’t feel the consequences at first, but later on, every stress feels harder and harder because they didn’t manage to cope with midterms properly or have a good rest afterward. Let’s dig deeper into the ways to help students stay healthy during midterms.
Coffee
Everything is good in moderation. It is an important rule to remember if you drink coffee instead of water and you are no longer sure how many cups you drink in a day. The consumption of large quantities of coffee can lead to headaches, anxiety, and high blood pressure. It can also lead to insomnia and poor-quality sleep, which makes you feel so tired during the day that you drink more coffee to stay awake, creating a vicious circle of addiction and increasing fatigue. Finally, for those who insist on adding sugar-based cream, dairy products, to your coffee, you are further undermining the health benefits that coffee could bring. Caffeine, sugar, and dairy products have additive properties that will increase coffee consumption over time and ultimately harm your physical and mental wellbeing.
Stay mindful of your coffee consumption. Coffee is not a lifestyle; it can become dangerous during midterms.
Set Realistic Time Frames
Psychologists claim that people tend to overestimate how long it takes to finish a certain task. Procrastination is a serious enemy during midterms.
Being aware of several laws on efficiency will help you not to get lost in your own schedule. The first is the famous Parkinson’s law. It says that the work takes all the time allotted for it. It means that if you can write an essay all day long, you will write it all day long – postponing, rewriting, and stretching the task.
But this does not mean that we should postpone the execution of the case to the deadline. First of all, you need to understand how much time it would take to do a certain job (it’s better to allow some extra time because most people tend to overestimate their speed), and start it exactly in within the set timeframe before the deadline. Until then, you can devote some time to other tasks.
Try to critically analyze your previous experience of preparing to exams, without whitewashing.
Netflix and No Chill
We usually do have time to prepare for exams, but we often choose to do something more pleasant instead. In addition to overestimating how much time it takes to finish the task, we decide that we can fit few episodes of the new series. It leads to a lack of sleep and increased stress level during midterms.
Not even the most unimaginable plot twist is worth falling asleep on the exam, failing the assignment, unhealthy skin tone, or being late on everything.
The best you can do to stay healthy and to survive midterms is to hit pause on Netflix until you go through this period.
Avoid Multitasking
Multitasking is a great thing, but not during the midterms. It is essential to concentrate on one thing at a time, one assignment, one subject, and one exam, if possible. If you multitask, your attention is scattered which negatively reflects the cognitive functions. When you are concentrated, you can achieve more in less time. However, concentration is proven to be a limited resource, so try to avoid being distracted.
When we are doing several things at the same time, we don’t actually do more than one thing at a time, but simply switch quickly between them. This switching consumes oxygenated glucose in the brain, it is the same fuel that is needed to focus on the task at hand.
You just need to do this for the time of midterms, it is extremely effective but takes a lot of effort to get started.
Spend some time focusing on one thing and after 2 hours, give yourself an hour break. After the midterms period ends, you can switch to your regular study and rest regiment.
Take a Break Every Hour to Move
It is the tip that most students ignore, and it is sad. Moving or doing yoga, stretching or a simple walk can provide our brain with the oxygen needed for concentration and be a good break between studying.
How to Learn New Material Better
Don’t rush through anything. The material will stick in your memory better if you master it in several portions. This is just as true when you are learning how to hit a tennis ball with a non-dominant hand, when you are memorizing chemical formulas, and when you are learning how to use a new technical device.
Plan the time you have to learn the material. If you can only allot to spend five hours studying for an exam, distribute that time and study for three to four days instead of using all those hours at once.
Eat, Sleep, Relax
Some students lose their appetite during the midterms. Others, on the contrary, begin to eat a lot of unhealthy food or just live on snacks. Do not forget about staying physically active: at least warm-up – this will help you relieve tension and give strength.
If you feel that you cannot cope with the overwhelming load of midterms, essays, college applications or you need a medical school personal statement help – don’t hesitate to delegate. It is a common practice these days.
In no case spend some sleepless nights before the exams: the strength will surely leave you at the most important moment, and you will have trouble thinking clearly. It is at least unfair to all the effort you’ve put into midterms preparation.
Good Luck!
Leave a Reply