Midterms are coming up soon! If your student has anxiety around tests and exams, check out Tutor Doctor’s guide for handling midterm stress and improving performance.
Surprises are not your friend
If we were to boil down all our advice into one extremely general tip, it would be to minimize surprises – or in other words, try to avoid unexpected moments during the test itself.
What do we mean by this? Students should try their best to prepare for every aspect of midterm exams, and not just the academic content. The reason we say this is because students are often so concerned about “blanking out” during an exam that they forget about the factors they can control. Here are just a couple of real-life examples:
- A high school student was so focused on studying for their trigonometry midterm that they forgot to bring spare batteries for their graphing calculator. The calculator died during the test, and they had to ask the teacher to use a “loaner” calculator that they were unfamiliar with – disrupting their focus and wasting precious time.
- A middle school student (and their tutor) were somewhat confused at the large amount of material being covered on a history exam. Unbeknownst to the student, the teacher had permitted students to bring a double-sided “cheat sheet” to help them remember key dates and historical figures. It turned out that the student was absent for a doctor’s appointment the previous week, but had failed to ask the teacher what they missed upon returning the next day.
These are just a few examples of the many non-academic hangups that we’ve seen happen to students. Our recommendation is this: make sure you have all your testing and study materials prepared well in advance of the exam, and don’t forget about spare items (like pencil lead, erasers, or batteries).
Study the correct way
The other main source of midterm stress is not actually the test itself – it’s the weeks leading up to it (and the anxiety that steadily increases as exam day nears). The best way for students to minimize stressful anticipation of midterm exams is to start preparing well in advance.
As many parents know, the act of “studying” is very open for interpretation – especially when it comes to our kids! Contrary to popular belief, however, there is most certainly a right and a wrong way to study. Unfortunately, the “wrong” way is what is commonly depicted in popular media.
Late nights staring at a computer screen, textbooks stacked high left and right, empty energy drink cans strewn around the desk – we’re sure you’ve all seen these themes depicting the classic “all nighter.” This really isn’t a good way to study, though. In fact, it’s probably the worst way of studying – and it’s referred to as “massed practice.” In the short term, trying to cram everything into a few long marathon sessions isn’t effective and won’t help students to fully absorb the material.
Instead, we recommended spaced practice, or “chunking.” Break up your study sessions into smaller chunks. Think about it like this – if you study for only 20 minutes each day for two weeks leading up to an exam, you’ve clocked the equivalent of a 5-hour cram session (without the stress and sleep deprivation). For more information on study tips, check out How to Retain More Information While Studying.
