Congratulations! You’ve reached the halfway point of the halfway point of the semester. Unfortunately as a reward you’re now facing midterm exams. It seems just yesterday you were reading about them on your syllabi, enjoying how far off they seemed. Now, they’re staring you right in the face.

Not to worry! Midterms aren’t as scary as they may seem. Well, most of them aren’t. There are a few key things you can do to make sure you do well on them and are on the right track to finish out the semester.

Keep Going to Class
Midterms time also happens to be the time when it’s most tempting to skip one or two (or more) classes. Don’t do it. Often the classes leading up to the midterm are full of review material that you’re definitely going to need to know. For those of you who have already been skipping class, now would be a good time to stop skipping, and start studying.

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Do you know what causes an earthquake? Or where the American Southwest is? Well, if you do, you have a much better grasp on geography than most eight graders in this country, according to a new report.

The report, which was created from the results of the 2010 National Assessment of Education Progress test, said that fewer than one-third of American students are considered proficient in geography. High school seniors scored, on average, 56.4 percent on this test. This is unfortunate for our nation because it shows that students are not being prepared to work in a global workforce.

“Geography is not just about maps,” said David Driscoll, the chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board. “It is a rich and varied disciple that, now more than ever, is vital to understanding the connections between our global economy, environment, and diverse cultures.”

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Most college students know what finals week really means. It’s not about preparing for weeks in advance and walking into the classroom the day of the test, completely confident that you will earn an “A+”. No, what it’s really about is spending hours upon hours in the library, beating facts into your brain, and surviving off coffee from Starbucks and snacks from vending machines. Not very healthy, and not very good brain food, either.

The food that you eat while studying is actually very important. I bet you didn’t know that your brain uses roughly 20 percent of the daily calories you consume and it needs healthy foods to help function better. Here are some foods that will help your brain function properly, because you want every advantage on test day you can.

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Taking the SAT, ACT, or PSAT is a nerve racking experience. I froze up my first time taking the ACT and didn’t finish the math section. I knew how to do it; it was just new and scary. It would have been awesome if I had been able to take a practice test beforehand. That way I would have known what to expect, how to pace myself, and known where to spend most of my time, based on my strengths and weaknesses.

Evidently the people at the Princeton Review have heard several people share my same concern. They have declared March 20, 2010 as National Testing Day they are offering a free full-length, SAT, ACT, or PSAT practice test to anyone who signs up.

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I remember sitting in a huge high school auditorium, nervously watching my teacher pass out scantrons. Everyone had at least two #2 pencils and several layers of clothes to take on and off, depending on when the A/C kicked in. We weren’t allowed to leave the room for any reason because it might allow us to cheat. We were taking a test in high school that could possibly get us college credit hours. It was nerve wracking!

I took my first College Board AP test when I was in 10th grade. I was terrified! I couldn’t eat the day before and during the exam. I couldn’t sleep. I was trembling throughout the exam. It was bad.

Recently, College Board announced plans to extend this terror to 8th graders. The test would be called RediStep and allow these middle school students to earn college credit through a test. However, due to the economic condition of many schools across the nation, the plan was postponed until 2010. Read the rest of this entry »