Midterm Week Already....?

If there had to be two words to describe this week and the upcoming week it would most likely be dead week. Right when you thought classes were going fine and you didn’t have much work to submit your professors are announcing midterm papers and projects, and they are all due on the same day. During this time you can find students pulling all nighters, overpopulating the libraries, walking around campus half awake with their venti Starbucks cups, and stuffing their face with any type of food just so they can say something was consumed. The primary reasons for all these actions is so that they can attempt maintain that A that they started out with. However, with a few altercations in the way that students prepares for these two weeks can help them in seeing just hard how hard they need to work before the semester ends. In order for students to increase their chances of doing well during this week they should make sure that they are consuming nutrient dense meals throughout their day. One should try to remember this motto during this stressful time, “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dinner like a pauper”. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In order for the meal to be the most effective try and consume it within the first hour of waking up but please do not stress if this is hard for you. Breakfast is a key meal because it helps a person in having a significant amount of energy to help them focus and begin their productiveness for the day ahead. This is not say that dinner and lunch are not important for helping one through the day as well. Also, throughout the day it is good for one to have little snacks such as an energy bar, fruits, veggies and nuts in a container. Now for my coffee feins, although during this week this is the time to indulge yourself in coffee try and minimize the amount of caffeine that you consume. Instead going to Starbucks and ordering the trenta, which some say the cup size is relatively the same size as one’s stomach, try and reduce your portion size to the grande. However, if you’re finding that you can’t live without your caffeine make sure that you are replenishing your body by consuming an equal amount of water to the amount of caffeine consumed. The next matter that one should address during this week is getting an accurate amount of sleep. One may think that if they sleep during this week this will prevent them from learning something and having the ability to store it in their brain for their test. However, this is not the case at all. When students get an accurate amount of sleep they tend to be less stressed, have a better appetite, improve memory, and can help in preventing colds. Although you may be stressed out remember to relax. Try not spend hours upon hours studying a subject. Use the 50/10 rule such as one SU’s students Nate Mercer does. Try and study for a solid 50 minutes straight and then use 10 minutes to do whatever you desire. By doing this it gives your mind a break and allows for you to retain the information better. By Rachel Johnson and Erin O’shaughnessy