As midterms approach, I cannot be the only one that feels anxious and imagines the worst scenarios possible. I spoke to Jam Marcos, a licensed mental health counselor who specializes in stress and anxiety management. He gave me a few tips that were helpful. I hope these tips can help others as well.
When I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I tend to forget important tasks and dates. Marcos suggested making a list of my assignments with their due dates. He specified that we tend to remember things better if we write them down the old-fashioned way, with a pen and paper.
Also, we should tackle things as we see the best fit. For some that is from easiest to hardest. For others, it is from hardest to easiest. Some may also order tasks by whatever consumes less time first or more time first. No matter what, start somewhere.
Another important thing to avoid feeling overwhelmed or anxious is to look at the assignments or study sheets before starting and mentally produce a strategy to prepare us for what is to come. Marcos said, “one thing that got me through undergraduate and graduate school was study buddies.” He suggested going to a quiet place with a friend or a group of classmates to work together and keep each other on task.
On a deeper level, when I feel on the verge of a meltdown or have negative or irrational thoughts such as, “OMG what if I fail all my classes… what if I don’t pass this midterm,” Marcos suggested making two lists: one with realistic outcomes and one with “what’s really the worst that can happen” scenarios.
He explained that we must train our minds to think positively. For reasons unknown, it is much easier for most of us to think about the negative things in our lives rather than the positive ones. On a brighter note, we imagine things much worse than they are. Jam suggested that all students get rest, do not feel the need to always be productive, and study with a positive mindset because if we do the work, we will surely get the results we want.
