Fresher parties, cultural societies, college friends, obligatory academic events, regular mini-trips and procrastination, college life until now was so laid-back. Heading into the mid-sem break a week before the schedule didn’t seem disgraceful. While some of you might have well screwed your internals, the determination to secure top grades is pretty much prevalent. Internals gaye toh gaye, final mein dekh lenge. Ek mahina milega na. Padh lenge. Seniors bhi yahi kehte hai.
As you read this post, I feel elated to inform you that we’re one month away from the semester exams. Wo ek mahina aa gaya! **Drum-Rolls**
And you know what? You’re in no mood to study. **Louder Drum-Rolls**
Where are the blues now? Why does the world seem all grey?
All of a sudden, you’re relenting the late-night movies or TV series, the society doesn’t seem fun anymore but a burden, and you’re calculating the exact number of hours you wasted ‘socializing’.
The determination to work out a schedule and balance time for everything is ever high now. You’re rigorously working out a schedule and asking yourself persistently over not doing it before. While you breathed a sigh of relief expecting never to see an internal question paper or assignment deadline again, it is back. It is worse this time. If you claimed the test syllabus to be vast, this is gigantic. No two questions or one chapter, this is the entire syllabus.
Memes and trolls on social media discussing exam phobia becoming unbelievingly relatable all of a sudden. Your faith in religion is restored.
It is the return of the Mid-Sem Crisis.
Welcome to the Club. Welcome to College.
As the ‘fun’ seems to fade away, it is time to adopt some realistic and not over-ambitious ways to fight this crisis.
This is the time to play it smart. You need to realize your capabilities and your goals. Leave aside the ideal model, seek the model that makes more sense to you. One-size-does-not-fit-all. Don’t try to take each and everything that comes your way. Aspiring for greater knowledge is imperative, but turns demotivating when you’re preparing to write an answer for an exam. Seek enough knowledge that’ll help you answer a question, don’t try to bag up knowledge to write a thesis. Though I do assert quality over quantity shall be the key, but neglecting quantity altogether is again silly. There are specific things that you must cover. Enlist them, try to cover them quickly and effectively. Then move on to goals that would offer additional scope. They could be additional questions, topics, or anything parallel.
Importantly. Do not panic. The more you panic, the worse it would become. A general tendency is to approach teachers for irrational help. Now getting doubts clarified is fine, but little would you realize that you’re doing this for the sake of doing it. Things done out of crackbrained motivation is disastrous and can only lead to further demotivation.
One of the most brainless suggestions is to stay away from friends. Hiding and working in stealth mode is what terrorist organizations advise their assassins. Talking it out to friends is a healthy exercise. But please, do not discuss education but anything else under the sun. For you may get visibly false answers. This is simply because they are unwilling to advertise themselves to a much-interested audience and not because they envy you. Don’t beam yourself with unsubstantiated self-concluded inferences thereon.
The fear starts to sink in now and is in its superlative level. As part of the customary observance you seek to be sincere and regular with your education the next semester. But then little would you realize that you are the chosen one. You are to teach the world that what goes back always comes around. It isn’t lost. Your pre-occupation with the mid-semester crisis would perfect you to an extent that the Crisis management value in your CV makes enough sense. Life at DU makes sure you earn the virtue not just mention it.
To freshers, I wish you all the best! Hope you have a pleasant journey. If you’re a sophomore, well. Karma is indeed a b***h, it always comes around. Best of Luck!
– Editorial, University Times
