By Alyssa Eby
Use your professors as resources
One of Bluffton’s strongest attributes is the professors’ dedication to their students—they genuinely want to see you succeed. If you’re struggling before an exam or have any questions, never be afraid to talk to your professor after class or shoot them an email. They want to see you do well and help you in any way they can.
Set time aside to study
Between classes, meals, campus events and spontaneous trips with friends, it can be difficult to find the time to really focus on studying. When you know a midterm is coming up, make a schedule and designate time to focus on studying. Knowing you have time aside will help you get in the studying mindset and increase your ability to focus. If you don’t set the time aside ahead of time, your study session may be delayed, cut short or never happen. Plan ahead and stick to it.
Take breaks
As important as it is to sit and focus on studying, it’s also essential to plan breaks in between. Studying for hours on end will cause more fatigue than anything else. After every few chapters, stand up and move around for a few minutes—relieve some of the stress of studying. If you’ve been studying for a while and are becoming more fatigued, take a longer break—go get a snack from Bob’s, run to Circle K and give your mind a break with some meaningless social media scrolling.
Get a good night’s sleep
Don’t stay up all night studying–it’s a proven fact that doing so doesn’t improve test scores. Instead, look over everything once right before going to bed and go to bed at a decent time. (3 a.m. isn’t a decent hour.) Yawning and struggling to stay awake during your midterm won’t help your score, even if staying up all night meant you studied longer.
Eat breakfast
Since your mom isn’t here to tell you, I’ll remind you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day—so, don’t skip it. Your stomach and brain will thank you—and so will the people around you who don’t want to hear your stomach grumble. You will be able to focus on the exam in front of you instead of a rumbling stomach and your brain will be better focused.
