Midterm season: a plan for the three worst weeks of the term

Find the collision now

Put every midterm date from every outline on one calendar in week one. In most first-year timetables, two or three land within five days of each other some time in October. That week is the whole problem, and it's visible from day one.

Once you can see it, the fix is boring and effective: the work for the pile-up week gets done in the two quiet weeks before it.

Triage when they collide

When three tests land in a week, you are not choosing what to study, you're choosing what to sacrifice. Do it deliberately:

1. Rank by weight, then by how far you are from the grade you want in that course.
2. The heaviest test gets the two best study blocks, the ones where you're rested.
3. The course you're already comfortable in gets maintenance only: one pass through the practice problems.
4. Anything non-graded that week (optional readings, a club commitment) moves. Ask early, not the night before.

Study what's actually on it

The outline and the professor's own review session tell you the format: multiple choice, short answer, what chapters, what's allowed in the room. Multiple-choice tests reward recognition and coverage; short-answer tests reward being able to produce the argument cold. They are not studied the same way.

Past tests, practice problems and the textbook's end-of-chapter questions are worth more per hour than re-reading notes, which mostly produces the feeling of studying.

The logistics that cost people marks

1. The room. Evening midterms are often not in your usual lecture hall, and are frequently split by last name across several rooms.
2. The calculator rule. Many Canadian business and science courses allow only one specific model, and using another is an academic offence.
3. What ID you need, and whether you can bring a crib sheet, and its exact allowed size.
4. The missed-test procedure, before you need it: at McMaster that's the MSAF, elsewhere it's a self-report or a note. Know the deadline for filing, which is usually short.

The night before and the morning of

Sleep beats the last two hours of cramming for anything requiring reasoning, which is most tests. Eat something. Get there ten minutes early so the walk isn't part of the stress.

After the test, write down what surprised you while it's fresh. That note is the single most useful thing you'll have when the final comes around.

Questions