Happy New Year! Here are some midterms. Many students have eight classes, and that means eight midterms. Eight extremely in-depth tests (or projects) in which the main purpose is to test the student’s knowledge of the entire first half of the year. It’s tough to study for one test at a time, let alone eight all in one week, which requires you to study all of your notes and information. To top it all off, midterms are basically right after a two week break. It’s stressful to say the least.
On top of midterms, many teachers assign homework and projects while also expecting you to study. Having so many things on your plate, it can be tough to know where to start.
Midterms aside, school is demanding in general. Homework, projects and tests, oh my! Some students are assigned hours upon hours of homework. If involved in a sport, the student may have to stay up extremely late to finish all their work, leaving them to do the same routine yet again the next day. School will begin to feel like it is taking over your life. Maybe it is. Your life is slowly morphing to fit around school. All of your time becomes devoted to school. Everything you do is school-related. At that rate, in only a few weeks, at the end of the day you will go straight home, do your school work and go to bed. Your friends will begin to wonder what happened to you. The stress will keep building up until you graduate and just when you think you finally get a break, BAM. Thousands of dollars of student loans crush you.
School can leave students feeling so stressed out that they aren’t sure what to do. Having a job can greatly increase the amount of stress. After school you go to work for however many hours you need to, then you come home late at night, exhausted from work and left to complete your school work. This might make you feel the urge to lay down on the floor and cry. Don’t.
Aside from that terrible feeling you get, stress isn’t healthy. Stress greatly increases your risk (or worsens your condition) of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and asthma. Stress can also cause anxiety and depression, and even premature death. The point is it’s not worth being stressed out.
So what do you do? Well, if you have time to spare, you could try to relax for a little while. Take a break. Organize your work and try to do it as neatly as possible. School can get stressful, but you don’t have to let the stress control you. Try not to get distracted and focus on what you need to get done. It will feel amazing after you get all of your work done and get good grades from all of your studying.