With midterms around the corner, it can be a stressful time for students as they study and prepare for their exams.
Students around campus shared their study strategies and advice when preparing for midterms.
First-year Kalli Roy shared her advice on what helps her the most when it comes to studying. “I like to write down key terms and important concepts,” Roy said. “When I say key terms, I mean focusing on what’s important rather than trying to write down everything the professor says.”
Roy continued, “For my midterms coming up in the next couple of days, that is what I’ll be doing from taking notes in class. Doing that specifically helps me study well and doing it over and over is what makes me do well on exams.”
“I would say writing something down repeatedly,” first-year Anna-Kate DesRoches said. “I also like to write down everything the professor says and have my friends quiz me, which is something else that helps me out the most.”
In addition, students added how midterm prepping and study strategies are effective only if they are in the Mason Library, and that they use it as a designated location for studying overall.
“I like to study in the library with people in a group. For specific study strategies, one of my things I like to do is to write things down so I can see it, read it and retain it easily. I can’t emphasize enough how the library being my study spot is what helps me get into preparation mode. It just makes sense to me location-wise to help with [midterm preparations],” said junior Lydia Swain.
Sophomore Eva Burroughs agreed with Swain and emphasized that it is important to study in the library. “My midterm prep is happening in the library now as we speak,” said Burroughs. ”Other things I did to prep were rereading paragraphs to make sure I understood them well, doing practice problems and repeating things until memorization.”
Likewise, sophomore Richard Curtis added, “I’m currently prepping for my finance exam and a couple of questions as well. My study strategy is to find a location you like–for me, it’s the library–and then read over the assignment given to you. When it finally makes sense to you, just go from there.”
Two other students said their way of prepping for midterms and studying consist of no preparation and just going with the flow.
“I don’t really prepare for midterms, I just check my Canvas pages and see when the midterm is for each class and just don’t really worry about anything else,” shared first-year Caden Tucker.
Junior Sean Bonneau shared how his routine requires no preparation, and how he likes to relax and “just hope for the best.”
“I can’t say that I study or have anything I do to prepare myself, same goes with study strategies. I just relax and hope I end up doing well in midterms. Everything usually works out.”
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