I think we’ve all come to realize, no matter how much we may bitch and moan, most college students care about their grades. Sure some of us like to say we don’t care, but when we’re staring at that blank piece of paper waiting…waiting…and waiting for that information to come to our minds their is a part of our souls freaking out that we won’t remember the answer to a 2 point question.  Midterms are approaching and instead of cracking the spine on our books and trying to read the miniscule text to remember what the professor taught; we may find ourselves procrastinating. Writing  and Reading blogs about studying instead of, ACTUALLY studying.

My name is Dar…I’m a senior within  10 hours of graduation. I think its time for both you and I to admit that Midterms Matter, or else we may be looking at our tests trying to convine ourselves (even though there is a minus next to it we still got an A).

Honesty:

In order to be an effective college student you have to be honest with yourself. In all probability, you aren’t  a genius. There is no way in hell you are able to learn the entirety of what it took a proffessor to teach you in one night. You aren’t a genius, if you have a test soon be honest with yourself and stop reading my blog, and go study in a library. Stop procrastinating Damnit!!!! You aren’t Einstein you need to study.

Don’t Negotiate your grades. By negotiating your grades. I mean self-negotiation.(e.g, If I fail this test I can get an A on the next one)

Sure you have the final and maybe another test to pad your grades if you happen to fail the midterm, but lets face the facts. If you get an F on the midterm and a F on the previous test, the probability of you passing the Final with an A is rather slim. Especially if you prepare for your final the way you prepared for your other two tests. If you screw up the midterm…there is still hope. There is still a rope in the well, but you’ve got to be strong enough to pull yourself out of the well.

What Do I Mean? I mean that if you screw up your midterm you better start studying for that final as hard as you can NOW! This means countless unwanted hours in the library, no time with friends, less drinking, and less crazy ass parties. This means its time for you to seriously buckle down and hire a tutor named Jebidiah who’s life consists of eating, sleeping, and chemistry. You will emmulate Jebidiah. You will pull up your pants and know nothing of current events, and your poor blog will be oh-so neglected. But when the final rolls around you will know about the class you’re failing. YOU will FINALLY UNDERSTAND that subject you’ve been failing.

<–Your Tutor Jebediah

The Best way to study for midterms is to start early, but if you’re reading this blog post you probably haven’t started early. In fact, there is a huge chance that the midterm you should be studying for happens to be tomorrow.

In that case, Cramming is a subtle art.

   Cramming is for the corageous at heart. Those of us who never learn that spreading out studying is easier, and constantly wait until the last minute to re-learn everything we’ve forgotten. The horrible thing about cramming is that its totallyaddictive. If you luck out an get an A on a test and you crammed all of the information for the test in 5 minutes, you’re always going to think of the one time cramming worked for you. Honestly, getting an A+ on a test and cramming is really rare if you haven’t paid attention in class, done any homework, or studied for the class in general. Here is my blog post on cramming tips: (http://daronline.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/cramming-study-techniques-what-you-need-to-know-to-cram-info-in-your-noggin-in-one-night/)

Either way what you’re doing in the Middle of the School Year does matter, and its very important that you are honest with yourself academically in order to be succesful for the rest of the school year.

Yours,

Dar