Midterm Season: When Time Feels Like an Illusion

As midterm exams are right around the corner, there have been some changes that I've noticed. The lecture halls are a little colder because they're less full, the "new semester glow" has been wiped off my fellow classmates' faces, and the library has become oddly humid because it’s completely filled with students. What I've witnessed isn't just academic pressure; it's also a shared response to stress. The real question is, how do we combat this stress?

Illustration by Dennis Balogh/Akron Beacon Journal/TNS

When we’re stressed, time can go by incredibly fast, which is why it may feel like we can’t waste a single moment doing anything that might be considered frivolous. Because of this, most of us end up pulling all-nighters. When we’re tired, we can’t think or absorb information properly, which is counterproductive because the time we spend studying can become a total waste. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to sleep early and then wake up early. This helps us feel more productive, absorb information, and, most importantly, reduce stress. It also helps combat the feeling of time going by fast.

The feeling of time slipping through our hands is what makes midterms so overwhelming. It’s not always the material itself. It’s the constant sense that we should be doing more, reading more, and reviewing more. And looking at the class GroupMe doesn’t always help. Every notification feels like a little bit of regret. Someone started reviewing a week ago, someone’s ready enough to take the practice exam, or someone’s already so prepared that they can actually think about next week’s homework. At this point, it feels like we have to keep up with everyone else. Preparation turns into a competition. But midterms were never supposed to be a race; rather, they’re more like marathons, personal to what we know.

Slowing down, sleeping, turning off our laptops, and muting GroupMe chats doesn’t mean we’re falling behind; it just means we’re protecting ourselves and our focus. And protecting our focus might be the most productive thing we can do.