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By Sayo Jolayemi
It is that time of the year Glenelg, midterms are almost upon us. Whether it happens to be your first or last year of high school, I’m sure you have some level of stress going into these fateful examinations. Fortunately, it does not have to be this way. By making a few adjustments in your daily routine, you can reduce midterm stress and guarantee yourself the highest possible chance of success. 9th Graders: Given that this is your first midterm experience, let’s clear the air: Midterms are not that bad, really. Sure it seems intimidating, but proper preparation prevents poor performance and that brings us to the first major key for managing midterm stress: get started now. You are going to have seven exhausting exams to power through in the final week of January. The sooner you get started the better, and don’t be scared to ask for help! Freshman Evan Whatley gave an insight to his tips for studying by saying, “I’m going to use Quizlets students last year made and modify them.” Many upperclassmen would be more than happy to point you in the right direction, whether it be an older sibling, a GHS Gladiator on the Horizon, or even a friend you have in a class. Their experience gives them an insight you are yet to achieve and they are sure to have some useful advice. 10th Graders: Okay Sophomores, this is your second time around and you may be looking to improve your midterms this year.. Make sure to take full advantage of your teachers this year, as they will not handhold you like they did last year. Midterm review/study guides will be your bread and butter so be sure to not only hold onto all of the review guides you receive, but actually take the time to look over them. Many teachers will only slightly variate their questions from these free handouts and proper inspection of these sheets of paper almost guarantee easy points. Also don’t be scared to ask your teachers questions you may have, going over the study guide with them will be a major convenience to you, and they may even give you tips regarding the exam. After all, who better to ask about a test than the person who wrote it? 11th Graders: Alright Juniors, you are trained in all the usual studying methods, Kahoot, Quizlet, etc. There is not much to introduce to you on that front. As many of you have taken this year to load up on APs and G/Ts in order to boost your class rank, you may very well be stressed out with numerous difficult midterms ahead of you. Lean on your friends! Make study groups with your classmates. Odds are they are just as stressed out as you are, and managing your workload amongst yourselves is a tactic useful for ensuring everyone maintains their sanity. Schedule study group sessions so that you all can go over class notes and analyze different bits of information each of you may have found important. The combined conglomeration of all your notes should ensure that all of you get a better score than what could have been accomplished individually. Just be sure to actually study, since it is quite easy to get caught up having fun with friends and not accomplish anything, so set study goals and stay on task. 12th Graders: Seniors, hopefully by now in your fourth year of midterms you’ve developed a form of studying. Glenelg Senior Dillon Skovron gave us his methods, “I just go over study guides my friends work on every once in a while. A little reviewing helps me a lot” However, if you have not nailed a study technique yet don’t fret, the other tips work for you guys as well. A more relevant issue may be figuring out a form of studying that does work. Especially if you plan to go to college because you will have approximately four more years of these dreaded exams come further education. Obviously, midterms are a big deal. They carry about 10% of your grade so it’s important to do well. Make sure come midterm week you are prepared, well nourished and well rested. Use those half days to get a jump on the next days exams, and you should do well. Hopefully these tips help you get the grade you're striving for coming the final week of January. By Julianna Mirabile
In the blink of an eye 2017 came and went. The ball dropped, ringing in the new year of 2018 all across America. With a new year, comes new resolutions. There are the common ones ranging from being healthy, working out, or learning a new skill. These kind of resolutions are more likely to be broken because they are so broad. There are also more specific goals that people set that focus on certain areas to make sure they are followed, such as working out three times a week, cutting out chocolate, or learning how to play the piano by June. Making your resolutions more specific will help you maintain your goals and finish off the year saying you actually kept up with it all year. If your resolution has to do with cutting out an unhealthy food, try replacing it with something healthy but just as yummy to keep your mind off of it. For example, if you are cutting out chocolate, replace it with eating strawberries everytime you would go to grab a piece. A few years back I used to drink soda daily. After learning about all of the negative effects it has on my body, I decided to cut it out for a whole year as my resolution. I ended up surviving the whole year without soda and replacing it with seltzer water, and to this day I am a seltzer addict and will barely touch a soda can. This year, I will be trying to cut out gluten for at least half the year to keep myself from overeating on unhealthy foods that contain gluten. Learning a new specific skill is always a fun resolution to have. Senior, Julia Herboldt, attended a reiki session (a type of healing that involves natural energies and crystal healing) and said that “I am going to start to study crystals and meditating to release stress. It was an amazing experience and I am interested in getting involved.” Finding something that you are passionate about and pursuing it as a skill or hobby is something that will inspire you to continue throughout the rest of the year. The most common resolution that people set is to start working out, though it is also the most common resolution that is broken. This is because the resolution is too generic. If the resolution is to just “work out”, there will be no strive or determination to actually get up every morning and go to the gym. Senior, Tony Mobley, explains that he specified his resolution to “Go to the gym four times a week at two o’clock every afternoon.” By giving an exact time and how many times a week he plans to go, it will drive him to actually follow through with the resolution. Although millions of people will be setting resolutions this coming year, let's see how many actually make it to 2019. |
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