Thriving or surviving: Managing midterms

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It’s normal to feel stressed out during midterms, but remember to seek out help if you are finding this time truly overwhelming.

When September rolls around and students return to the bustling streets of London, so does all the fun. The first few weeks are filled with exploring, meeting new people, activities, and excitement. Then suddenly it’s mid-October, midterms are looming, and the stress is heavy. Sound familiar? If so, that's OK, everybody is feeling it. Gillian Villanueva, a counsellor at Fanshawe College shared that this is a “completely normal” feeling.

“Midterms is a time we see more traffic in our office,” Villanueva said. “It’s sort of the moment reality hits and you think, ‘Oh my gosh I’m here for school and there's all these things I need to study and learn,’ so it is an intimidating time for sure.”

The first set of midterms take place every year around Thanksgiving and while the reality check can be humbling and stressful, how you feel may not be as bad as you think.

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“How you feel is totally normal, a certain amount of stress is normal and can actually help us to perform better, it adds a little bit of pressure, a little bit of motivation, so a little bit of stress is a good thing,” shared Villanueva.

While a little bit of stress is healthy and may give the kick you need to get the job done, there is a point where you do need to draw the line.

“When you start to feel overwhelmed, I think it’s really important to engage in some behaviours that might be helpful. In fact, engaging in those behaviours prior to and through the whole school year can really help to negate that amount of stress,” Villanueva said.

Balance can be easier said than done but making sure that midterms do not consume your life is really important for maintaining mental clarity for good performance, as well as your overall well-being.

“You want to make sure you are incorporating things like breaks into your studying. If you are just going to be sitting in front of the books and not budging, you're probably not going to learn a lot,” said Villanueva.

Sometimes taking breaks can leave you feeling like you are falling behind, but your brain needs the break to ensure it can retain all the information you learn when you are studying. There are productive ways you can enjoy a break, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

“Make sure you are moving your body get up and walk around, go for a walk around campus just move, because that actually helps your memory, and make sure you are connecting with other people as well, if you can, step away and have a little bit of fun even if it’s just meeting a friend for coffee,” shared Villanueva.

Another crucial element to strong performance and mental clarity is ensuring your sleep is in check, and you are eating well.

“Make sure you are getting enough sleep, I know a lot of students pull all-nighters, I remember my days of being a student and it’s really not the healthiest thing to do, so make sure you are getting sufficient sleep and sufficient nutrition, you cannot just live on coffee,” said Villanueva.

This time of year can be so daunting, and even if everything recommended here does not seem to be working, you still have plenty of resources around you. Fanshawe College’s on-campus counselling services are available to all students.