Tag Archives: midterms

Midterms and All that Jazz

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Hello again! This weekend I went home, but I would have preferred to stay on campus just because of the amount of homework I have to get done on Sunday. On Friday, I went to visit family in Philadelphia and on Saturday, all day, I went to a Maryland (College Park) football game. Now, don’t misunderstand, I full heartedly support our McDaniel Football team and actually wore a McDaniel shirt under my hoodie, but going to the homecoming game at Maryland is a tradition for us for three years. I ate so much food! I will be going to the gym a lot when I get back. Today is also a Ravens’ game and I thinker there is an Orioles’ game too.

So the week coming up is Midterm week, for most students (some professors assign midterms the week before and maybe the week after). I have a midterm Thursday night for my Mediterranean Traditions class and thankfully our professor gave us a Study Guide. When a professor gives you a study guide, you should definitely make sure that you study everything on it. They are the most useful things that a professor can give you for a test. I usually will write down the answers or details on notebook paper and then transfer it onto a word document, which helps to solidify the information twice. Then I will print the word document and study that and try to recite the information without the help of the answer sheet. I know I already probably mentioned this, but I thought it might be good to bring it up again because it is not only useful with any test, but it is really helpful for the midterm and final exams.

I did say that I was going to try to be involved in ACC, but unfortunately most of their meetings are on Friday nights when I go home. I do not plan on going home this often after we move, but I do go home for family and other traditions that we have. I told my parents already that I’m going to stay at school for the next weekend and spend most of my time in the library doing homework. I had this idea at the beginning of the semester to get all my homework done for the week on the weekend so I wouldn’t have to worry about it during the week, but then life happened and that didn’t really work out. It’s nice to idealize, but sometimes you have to work out a new plan when things happen.

This week, I will also be attending a lecture for a German speaker at John’s Hopkins University on Thursday, depending on whether or not we can find someone with a car. I can’t drive yet, but I don’t really feel a huge need to get one because I’ve ridden buses and the light rail when I was in high school. I also think walking is healthy, so I don’t mind walking to Safeway or Baugher’s or Heinz Bakery. Anyways, I will definitely be writing about that later in the week and I hope you enjoyed this post!

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Gearing Up for Midterms

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The fifth and sixth weeks of the semester are always when people realize that Midterms are just around the corner. Two weeks from now, I will be on my way home for Fall Break. As much as I love being on campus and love McDaniel, it is always nice to go home and just relax for a few days. This weekend is not going to be one of those fun weekends for me. Each semester at this point in the semester, I take some time to gather up everything I am going to need for the Midterm. A few of my classes are not doing midterms this year, which on one hand it great, but on the other, I either have a test right before Midterm week or a paper due right after the break. Either way, there is always a lot of work to be done in all my classes. I’ll be spending the majority of my weekend studying for a test on Monday and the rest of it organizing everything for a midterm in one of my classes.
Organization is a huge part of preparing for midterms and finals. For me at least, I find it a lot easier to focus on actually studying the material once all the information has been organized. When I’m studying, my friends will find me in the living room with all my books and notebooks spread across the floor, which looks like a total mess, but is really just organized chaos. A lot of teachers have steered away from giving tests as midterms. Many times you’ll have a group project or presentation due sometime before Fall Break instead, or you’ll have a paper. Even if they don’t give out an actual test, they are still required to give you a mid semester grade. These grades usually go up about a week after midterms have finished. It is very nice to see how you are really doing in all your classes and to figure out which classes you need to spend more time on or pay more attention to. I always get nervous when I check my grades because I am a perfectionist and I always want to have A’s.
One of the most valuable lessons I have learned since coming to college is that the grades really do reflect what work, how much time and how much attention you have given to specific classes. Each class is structured in a way that if you do all the work and retain all the information, an A is not going to be a hard goal to reach, but if you try to cut corners and do the bare minimum, your grade is going to reflect it no matter how many hours before the test you spend cramming information into your head. Managing your time, staying focused, and organizing your notes and books are all things that will contribute to better study environments and better grades on tests and in the class as a whole. Put in the effort and the teacher will reward you.

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Gearing Up for Midterms

Posted on by
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The fifth and sixth weeks of the semester are always when people realize that Midterms are just around the corner. Two weeks from now, I will be on my way home for Fall Break. As much as I love being on campus and love McDaniel, it is always nice to go home and just relax for a few days. This weekend is not going to be one of those fun weekends for me. Each semester at this point in the semester, I take some time to gather up everything I am going to need for the Midterm. A few of my classes are not doing midterms this year, which on one hand it great, but on the other, I either have a test right before Midterm week or a paper due right after the break. Either way, there is always a lot of work to be done in all my classes. I’ll be spending the majority of my weekend studying for a test on Monday and the rest of it organizing everything for a midterm in one of my classes.

Organization is a huge part of preparing for midterms and finals. For me at least, I find it a lot easier to focus on actually studying the material once all the information has been organized. When I’m studying, my friends will find me in the living room with all my books and notebooks spread across the floor, which looks like a total mess, but is really just organized chaos. A lot of teachers have steered away from giving tests as midterms. Many times you’ll have a group project or presentation due sometime before Fall Break instead, or you’ll have a paper. Even if they don’t give out an actual test, they are still required to give you a mid semester grade. These grades usually go up about a week after midterms have finished. It is very nice to see how you are really doing in all your classes and to figure out which classes you need to spend more time on or pay more attention to. I always get nervous when I check my grades because I am a perfectionist and I always want to have A’s.

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned since coming to college is that the grades really do reflect what work, how much time and how much attention you have given to specific classes. Each class is structured in a way that if you do all the work and retain all the information, an A is not going to be a hard goal to reach, but if you try to cut corners and do the bare minimum, your grade is going to reflect it no matter how many hours before the test you spend cramming information into your head. Managing your time, staying focused, and organizing your notes and books are all things that will contribute to better study environments and better grades on tests and in the class as a whole. Put in the effort and the teacher will reward you.

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