For the next nine months, someone is always having midterms or finals.

We try to acknowledge that by always mixing in a few posts about studying tips, time management updates, and studying techniques, because it is never too late to make an improvement.

It is important not to fall for “all or nothing” thinking. When counseling students, they often say that they were “doing great at first and then…” The problem here, and one that few people are willing to admit, is that students set themselves to be perfect and then could not maintain.

When I counsel students not to set up patterns or expectations that they cannot maintain, they insist that they are “perfectionists”. This would sound more realistic if they were not sitting in front of me in their pajamas and had not just told me that they are three weeks behind in their classes and have only eaten ramen for the last ten days.

Perfectionism sounds good, but you are either rigid, obsessive perfectionist or a regular person who is driving yourself crazy pretending to be a perfectionist. The best way to get help with midterms and finals is to help yourself by setting up a realistic schedule based on expectations that suit you and your life.

There is nothing special about wanting to be special, we all do it. Making reasonable expectations for your life is step one to success. You can either pretend that you can do things you cannot then fail at them, or you can set yourself up to succeed, which will become a foundation of growth.

We are not saying that you are to blame for everything, only that realistic expectations will help you and that whatever caused your troubles, it will be you who gets you out. We can help by creating study guides, model term papers, and doing other work. You can help by getting more sleep, eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, and setting realistic standards that you can maintain for the entire term rather than for the first couple of weeks.

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