How to get over the midterm slump as a college student

As I am etching closer to the end of my undergraduate, I am realizing that as my friends fell into the slump that happens after the midterms I somehow managed to stay afloat, and so I had to sit down and figure out how I was doing that.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not college Jesus, in my freshman and sophomore years I too fell into this pit, and I am here to help you get out of it and hopefully never fall back into it again.

What causes the post-midterm slump? I am not a psychologist, so I can factually answer this, but for me what caused it was fatigue.

I felt like I had worked so hard to get to my midterms, doing assignments, studying for CAT’s, and doing group work that by the time I completed writing my midterms I simply had no juice left, and sometimes this would go on until week 10. Sometimes even week 11.

This is dangerous considering that in USIU we take our end-terms on week 14. This is what I began doing to make sure that, for starters, I reduced the slump duration and finally got rid of it altogether

1. Sleep

Working up towards the midterms is usually like climbing up a hill, and afterward, from week 8 to week 14 it’s like going down the hill right? So what does one do after a long trek? They rest. Exactly. You probably haven’t been sleeping well during exam week.

You probably pulled an all-nighter, maybe two, so make sure you get plenty of rest.

This is not the time to catch up with your Netflix series, this is the time to give your body some much-needed rest. If your exams end on Thursday, then clear your weekend plans and just sleep. When your body has had enough sleep, it will be refreshed and ready for the second half of the semester.

2. Evaluate

Great job of getting through exam week, I remember how taxing exam weeks were, so no it is time to look at your grades thus far and evaluate how to move forward keeping your semester goals in mind.

Look at how things have been for the past 7 weeks, are you happy with how they are? Or perhaps there is something you would like to do better? This review break is very important.

It will give you a chance at a very smooth second half of the semester if you just take the time to look at what you have been doing, and how you can improve on said things.

3. Take responsibility

You are in that slump because you have temporarily run out of fuel. It takes a lot of gas to get to week 7 and as such you need something new to fuel you to the end of the semester.

Beginning week 8 most professors give group assignments and this will be your opportunity to fill up the motivation tank. Volunteer to be the group leader of as many groups as you can handle. Why will this help you get over your post-midterm slump?

Suddenly you will have tonnes to do, and your brain simply won’t have time to lazy around. This worked wonders for me, and I am sure it will for you too.

4. Set new goals

Say leadership isn’t your forte, then perhaps you just need to set new goals for yourself. What kind of goals? Goals like “getting to class on time all week long”, “scoring in the 90th percentile in all your assignments”, performing better in your end-terms than you did in your midterms”, and “handing in all your assignments before the deadline”, those kinds of goals. Setting new goals will light a second fire to help steam you through to the end of the semester.

5. Accountability buddy

If all else fails, get yourself an accountability buddy. Earlier this week I wrote about how to get a good GPA at USIU and one of the things I wrote about was the company you keep. If you take school seriously and want to do well, then you need to keep in good company, and you need to hang out with like-minded people. That is the only way you will survive.

Get one of your like-minded acquaintances to help you out. You can both help each other out, lean on one another, and push each other to keep the momentum high until the end of the semester.

If you found this helpful, do let me know in the comment section below. Also, please share this with your friends and classmates. Until the next time, wear your mask and wash your hands!!!