Midterm Lifesavers

As promised in my last post, here's a list of useful tools which helped me a lot during my first midterm exams in Law School.

1. Energy Drink

During midterms week, I felt like it was a mortal sin to sleep. There are numerous provisions to memorize and a big pile of cases to read. I have every urge to avoid sleep and instead allot the time for studying. It's just normal to sacrifice several hours of sleeping because no one can actually survive law school without depriving oneself of sleep once in a while. And in this endeavor, I found a friend on Sting Energy Drink. It kept me awake until 8 in the morning and my mind was very receptive. Lime flavor really worked for me. It's my lifesaver! Plus, unlike coffee, it didn't make my stomach hurt in the morning. Just be careful though because energy drinks like Sting also contain caffeine and too much caffeine may cause side effects. It must be consumed moderately.

2. Multivitamins

Preparing for the midterms was tough. It was stressful and it required a lot of sacrifices. It was inevitable to skip meals and to sacrifice sleep. But it is important not to neglect the needs of our body. Midterms week for me was not very healthy but I compensate for all the "unhealthy practices" like drinking caffeine, sleep deprivation and skipping meals by drinking vitamins. Enervon had been my body's best friend since college and it still hasn't failed me. Despite the lack of sleep, I still have energy and attentive mind needed for answering the exams. But of course, there's no substitute for a healthy consumption of food and adequate hours of sleep. I'm just saying that during desperate times like midterms, enervon and other multivitamins can keep you alive.

3. Chocolates and other Sweets

Someone told me before that chocolates or sugar in general boost memory. I didn't check whether this information is reliable and yet I always make sure that I have chocolates whenever I study. I would love to share the scientific explanation but I'm not a very scientific person. I do things when they work for me. And eating chocolates actually helps me remember things. Chocolates and caffeine work good together. They are my super duo! I don't know how I would survive sleepless nights without them. Yeah, during midterms week, I temporarily disregarded my diet because passing my exams is more important than my figure.

4. Highlighters and Colored Pens

I used different colors of highlighter and pens. It's effective when you're taking down notes as well as when you're just reading. I write notes at the spaces in my book. It made me remember things quickly and it's easier to go back and review what I've read. At first, I thought it's messy but trust me, it's totally reliable.

You can develop your own code as to what a certain color means. For instance, I use yellow highlighter for the concepts, green for the definitions, blue for important notes, etc.  By the way, green highlighter is effective for retention of information and red pen is useful for catching one's attention. I usually use a red pen in writing important details on my notes. My books and notes makes more sense now that I discovered the art of using highlighters and colored pens.

You must also keep in mind these 3 simple tips from the Radford University's website, to make the most out of the highlighting technique. 

• Read a section before you underline or highlight it. Often information that seems important turns out not to be so important after you read the entire section.
• Do not underline or highlight too much. If you underline everything it is just as useless as underlining nothing. Try to only underline about 15 percent of the information on any given page or section.
• Make the major points stand out clearly. You can develop special markings to use on major points so they are set apart from other information.

5. Prayer

The most important tool that saved me during the midterms week was prayer. Whenever my heart starts beating really fast and it's impossible to concentrate on reading or memorizing, I would just pray to God to calm my heart, mind and body and I would instantly feel my nerves relaxing. Prayer is my best weapon. It gives me a sense of assurance and inner-peace. Assurance that God will always be there for me no matter what results I get; Inner-peace to know that there are things I cannot control but I'll be fine (Afterall it's just an exam. Failing won't kill me.).  He knows and wants what's best for me, I just need to work to deserve the best. Truly, "the best helping hand is at the end of our own arms" because "while we do what we can, God will do what we can't."

There you have it! These are the things that helped me during my first midterm exams. I'm sure that I wouldn't get perfect scores the way I want. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I'm going to pass some of my exams but I'm still happy. Midterms gave me a preview of how exams are done in law school. Hopefully, it will be my guide through the rest of my journey in my first semester.

These tools are not only for law students, they may also be of use to students of other fields. But always remember that you know yourself best. What works for other people may not work for you and vice versa. Apply the techniques and use the tools that work for you.

P.S. Please pray for me that I may obtain great grades.