It's hard to believe that my very first university term is already half over. Last week, commonly referred to as "Hell Week" here at Waterloo, has been a whirlwind of studying for and writing all of our midterms in the span of five days. There were definitely a few stressful moments throughout the week, from unease about the very first exam (calculus) to apprehension over the notoriously difficult physics midterm. Reminiscent of the pressure that I'd felt during International Baccalaureate exams only a few months ago, this week seemed to bring about more anxiety due to it being our first official test of university. Whether it was self-motivation or simply the weight of stress - likely a combination of both - many of us spent the weekend of Thanksgiving studying rigorously for the midterms to come.
Since I am in Stream 4, midterms happened to coincide with the second-last week of job interviews for winter co-op positions (which I'll be talking about more in my next post!). I happened to also have one to two interviews a day, so I spent the week running around from midterm to interview, then back to my dorm to prepare for the next ones. Thankfully, we had the week off from classes, meaning that we could focus all our effort on exams. One of the main things I've enjoyed about living in residence is always having a group of people to study with; in high school, I preferred to study independently, and while I still like to study alone for more major exams, it really helps to have a network of people to go to with questions, where we're able to help each other out.
They key to midterms, I soon realized, is to study past exams. You can study lecture notes or the textbook for as long as you want, but it isn't as effective as studying actual exams from previous years. Often, it becomes easy to see patterns of questions you know for sure will appear again. University exams focus more on applying what you know versus simply just knowing it, so it really helps to practice examples and put your knowledge to the test.
Overall, midterms went by smoothly, and I am quite pleased with how I did. I think that they were a great introduction into how to better study for exams in university; it already feels as if finals are right around the corner. Thankfully, they're not all in one week, as they are quite heavily-weighted toward our final course grade. Now that exams are over, the focus is back on securing a co-op job; I'll be discussing some of my experiences with employer interviews soon, as Monday is when I find out where I'm working next term! More exciting details to come.
They key to midterms, I soon realized, is to study past exams. You can study lecture notes or the textbook for as long as you want, but it isn't as effective as studying actual exams from previous years. Often, it becomes easy to see patterns of questions you know for sure will appear again. University exams focus more on applying what you know versus simply just knowing it, so it really helps to practice examples and put your knowledge to the test.
Overall, midterms went by smoothly, and I am quite pleased with how I did. I think that they were a great introduction into how to better study for exams in university; it already feels as if finals are right around the corner. Thankfully, they're not all in one week, as they are quite heavily-weighted toward our final course grade. Now that exams are over, the focus is back on securing a co-op job; I'll be discussing some of my experiences with employer interviews soon, as Monday is when I find out where I'm working next term! More exciting details to come.
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