Did Someone Say Midterms?

Midterms seemed to appear out of thin air this semester. Before I knew it, my normal bedtime became 3AM, and lately, more and more of my time has been spent in the various libraries on campus.

The really cool thing about the libraries (yes, I just used “cool” and “libraries” in the same sentence – the two can go together!) is that students are allowed to reserve study rooms.

Lately, it seems as though I almost spend most of my time in study rooms. The rooms can be reserved for up to two hours per student, so my friends and I will reserve the same room back-to-back so we can have more time.

Photo my friend, Emily Dawson, took of me while we were
studying for our ENG 223 midterm earlier this week.

Earlier this week, I had a midterm in my ENG 223 (Strategies for Writers) class, and for me, one of the best ways to study is to write down terms and definitions and then discuss them with someone so I can ensure my understanding. So, my friend and I reserved a study room with a whiteboard, and I wrote out all the terms and definitions and we had a discussion about them. It turned out to be a surprising amount of fun.

What I learned was that nothing makes for a more entertaining discussion than trying to think of examples to explain terms that relate to rhetoric. Yep, that's right, studying can be fun.

Having a quiet place to study is really nice, especially when I seem to be so easily distracted when I try to study in my dorm.

Midterms are really stressful, and for me, I’ve always found them more stressful than finals. I think most of that is a result of having a lot of other homework to complete in addition to studying. But preparing for finals only requires studying and paper writing as generally, other assignments are completed by the end of the semester.

But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel that is midterms, and that light is spring break, which starts in a week. So while homework, papers, and midterms definitely piled up a lot faster than I imagined, at least there’s a much needed break soon…