Students find ways to survive midterms

As students are already halfway through the semester, Minnesota State University, Mankato is entering midterm season. 

Students are working hard to prepare for these exams and finding what method of studying works best for them. 

Rachel Fisher, a sophomore, explained her studying process as, “I’ll go over the class notes on D2L as well as the lectures and powerpoints posted there.”

Fisher hasn’t had any midterms yet, but is fully prepared for when they come around.

Other students are struggling to find the best way to study for their exams, but are still working hard to figure it out.

Sophomore Sierra Garcia is one of these students. “I’m studying for one right now, and not very good because I don’t know what I’m doing.”

To help with this problem, Garcia said that using flashcards has been the most helpful for studying. 

Morgan Cimino, a sophomore, discussed her experience with midterms so far.

“It depends on the class. One of my classes, over half of us all failed or got below 30% on the exam. I had another one for my physics class, again over half of us failed that exam and we got lectured on it. So, it’s going really well.” 

Cimino pointed out that her major isn’t easy to study for, “I’m an engineering major, so there’s no memorization at all, you just have to work out problems and do that on your own time.”

Sophomore Alexia Blackford pointed out the lack of clarification between exams and other assignments for her classes, as she didn’t know she already took her midterm.

“The exams are going fine because I feel like none of my teachers are saying this is a midterm, none of them have talked about midterms. There was this one quiz I had in the class, it ended up being a midterm but he didn’t specify that before we took it,” Blackford stated.

As classes are being held in person again, students are noting a difference with the way exams take place.

“It’s a very different environment being in-person for the exams, for sure. I think the professors are a lot better about, after the exam, asking what they can do to try and help. So, I guess, there’s a lot more communication back and forth between students and professors,” Cimino stated, with others agreeing as well. 

One of the best things to come after completing an exam is taking some time to relax and take a break from studying. 

Fischer, Blackford, and Garcia all mentioned that their favorite way to relax afterwards is to watch Netflix and spend time with their friends, but this isn’t the case for everyone. Cimino brought up that she doesn’t get time to relax, since she also has to balance work with her academics.