All the same, it’s a stressful time of year, and sometimes coping with midterm stress may be as difficult as taking a test itself (especially without stuhdeeing). Thankfully, there are some coping mechanisms for students who wish to manage the stress.

 

1. Having trouble sleeping? Count sheep! Count sheep in Spanish to practice for your Spanish final! Count sheep in Spanish to practice for your French final! Is counting cute wooly ovids not doing the trick? Sing yourself a lullaby! Sing yourself a lullaby in Spanish… (you get where this is going). If one cannot think of any lullabies or realizes that croaking out a song is not bringing any zzzz’s, I recommend listening to one of my own favorite bedtime tunes: Dennis Rodman’s rendition of happy birthday.

 

Parents do not always take kindly to being woken up by lovely adolescent voices, even though they too were once stressed out teenagers who wanted to show off their newly developed Adam’s apples, so just be sure to whisper your song or listen to the chanting former NBA all-star softly.

 

2. Another strategy to relieve midterm stress is rationalization. Are midterms really important? Well, it depends. Do you want to go to college or have a future? Having a life can be a difficult concept to grasp, and consequently so are midterms. There’s nothing that will distract you from school life, however, like being 16 and pregnant (being 17 and pregnant if you got cold feet midterm time last year and couldn’t go through with it).

 

That’s right, get pregnant! All of a sudden it makes no difference anymore if you can count sheep in Spanish when you’ve got a little class of 2032 Clark Charger on the way. Your parents will certainly understand if your priorities change, shoot, maybe they had the same idea back when they were in school. If you are a good role model, maybe that youngster of yours will adopt your coping mechanisms too when he or she has high school midterms.

 

3. Finally, if relaxation or conception is not appealing, then one can always take some five-hour energies the night before (five should provide a healthy 25-hour day) and deal with midterms the old fashion way: studying. To study, or “think intently and at length,” requires too much work. Maybe just stick to one sheep, two sheep, three…