8 Ways that Successful People Maximize Midterm Success

By Parul Agarwal

After three exciting weeks of class, it’s finally time for the semester-long academic comp process known as midterms. Although these midterms are neither in the middle of the term, nor singular tests, they are something all students must deal with—unless you were smart enough to sign up for four freshman seminars.

Stressed about studying? Confused about how to balance classes and your social life? Worried about procrastinating or ADD? Read this!

1. Think of All-Nighters As Study Tools

During the week it’s easy to say, “This weekend, I’m definitely staying in to study,” but once Friday night rolls around, solo studying is quickly replaced by solo cups. Take advantage of your bad habits! Instead of an average night of pong and Spotify’s Hipster PBR Power Hour playlist on Thursday night, inevitably followed by round two on Friday, take one night and do it big! Go out on Thursday night and pull an all-nighter. Come Friday night, you’ll be too exhausted to drink anything besides water and coffee.

2. Pop Some Addies (Advil for those headaches).

If you pulled an all-nighter and had a few too many Shirley Temples, that painful headache may be pulling you away from your studying. If you’re looking for long-term headache relief, don’t waste your precious study time taking Tylenol every 4 hours. Pop an addy and get back to work.

3. Stay Hydrated

We just watched this inspirational TED talk, and now we are all about hydration. You can’t beat H(2)-the izz-O(xygen)

3A. Corollary to 3.

Eat Your Vegetables.

4. Pretend it’s a job interview for an investment banking firm, not for Facebook.

When it comes to test taking, it’s all about confidence, and if a three piece suit or six-inch stilettos doesn’t make you feel like a thousand bucks, then nothing will. Put aside the textbook and begin online shopping immediately. Dress well, test well.

5. State Dependent Learning

Fun fact from Intro to Psychology—thanks Dan Gilbert!—your mind is best at remembering information in the same state that you learned it. What does this mean in real world applications? If you decide to study after a few too many Shirley Temples, then before the test you should also pound a few Shirleys, and you’ll remember more than if you didn’t. Now not only do we know what Shirley Temples can do to the brain, but we also know how hard they are to resist.

6. Dance A Lil Bit Now And Then

When you’re feeling stressed and you want to shout, the best thing to do is dance it out! Nothing helps calm us down more than a little 5 minute dance session. What really does it for us is Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” but hey maybe you’re more of an Avicii or a Bach kinda person. Whatever, it’s all good. Especially this.

7. Play The Wikipedia Game

We cannot recommend this more as a way to learn some random facts and bond with friends. Here’s how it goes: Everyone playing takes their laptop and heads to wikipedia.org. All players must agree on a starting page, and a goal page to end up on. Using only links and never going backwards, everybody competes to get to the goal page first. For maximum fun, think of the most random pages as possible. True story: we just played using Maybach Music Group and Edward Wigglesworth (our dorm’s namesake), but no doubt Salvador Dali, Blue Ivy Carter, Toledo Ohio, and the parlophone would all make excellent choices.

8. Rush the New Frat

You may have heard that a group of Harvard students are in the process of restarting a chapter of Kappa Sigma. Although they may not officially be hosting a spring rush this semester, don’t miss this awesome chance to meet the bros, enjoy some excellent appetizers, brush up on your Greek, and practice those valuable man-flirting skills.