Hey there! It’s currently week 5 in UCI and it’s a pretty stressful week because it’s midterm week. You might think the midterm week is nothing, but imagine only having two hw assignments for your grade book and midterms being 30% of your grade. And you can only take the midterm once. To top it all off, if you messed up your midterm, well I will just leave it there. That was the mindset I came when I started college. I knew grades and GPA has the most priority, (even more than my life), and I can’t use my “don’t study pass class” high school technique. So I sat down in a study room, opened my laptop, and opened the lecture slides. Not much sign of productivity, because I ended up chatting with my friends. My test was on Monday and I only had a weekend to study, so I hit up one of my buddies to study together. We agreed and met in a food court, and for 5 hours straight, I was able to study. I took notes on each powerpoints and revised my hw assignments. Sunday came and I was more determined to pass this midterm, and I once again studied for 3 hours. At this point, I was getting tired, studying for 8 hours for 12 power points. The midterm had a formula and it had only 25 multiple choice questions and I studied for 8 hours. One might think I was putting in too much effort, and I thought that too. So I took a break with gaming and memes. Life was great. I was getting confident about my knowledge and started to take more frequent breaks. Life was going great, and I envisioned myself getting an A for this midterm.
How wrong I was. Dead wrong.
Monday morning rolled in and I mentally prepared myself to finish this midterm and get out of the class. I went to class holding my review paper, glancing at notes to see if I didn’t miss any information. A friend came and asked the classic exam question: “Are you ready?” With confidence, I replied, “Oh yeah, can’t wait to take it and leave class.” Soon the class filed in and I started taking out my supplies, cram-reviewing my notes. The exam came and I opened the first page.
I came out of the exam thinking how dead wrong I was about this midterm. The questions were filled with dark magic and questions more twisted than a rope. I thought where I went wrong about my midterm, and I realized it was my style of studying. I studied my lecture, not understand the content. Disappointed with myself, I became more determined about my upcoming midterm this Friday and do my very best to pass the midterm.
Moral of the story?
Never be overconfident. If you feel overconfident, it probably means you are not ready for the test. There is a difference between studying and understanding. Don’t just study and memorize, like actually understand the content and try to apply to real life. Because everything you learn in college has a form of application in real life.
If you are a high school student reading this (or anyone else): don’t be scared about exams. You might be thinking about putting in 10 times more hours than you normally do in high school, but honestly, it’s worth it. If you pass, good job. On the other hand, if you failed your midterm, don’t cry, don’t give up, but learn from it. Where did you go wrong? And remember college is fun, it’s the last student life you will have before heading joining the labor force. Everything has its own challenges, and after all, you grow from overcoming the challenges if you have the right mindset.