Student Blog: Midterm Madness: English Major vs Science

This past month I’ve watched as friends of all majors struggle through their exams. Somehow, the fall midterm period always hits harder than the spring one. I suspect that’s because we’re still shaking off the last dregs of summer rust, but it’s also just a rough time regardless. 

This year though I only had one midterm. This has actually been a trend throughout college. I don’t know how, but I haven’t had many big midterms. Because of my majors, I often write papers, but nothing that weighs more than any other essay. There have been a few projects, but those are usually more digestible, at least from a mental standpoint. A project is very rarely as daunting as, say, an exam which was unfortunately the reality I was facing this semester.

This fall I decided to take an astronomy course. It is geared towards non-science majors who just want to get an understanding of astronomy without math, graphs, and really anything that breaks literary-oriented brains. It’s been fun and I’m genuinely impressed at the concepts my professor is able to articulate without us dying of either confusion or existential crises. Unfortunately, though, its midterm was an exam.

I have had three exams in college and two were from one class. The first was a computer science midterm that went so poorly that the professor curved it, so the class wouldn’t fail. The other two were for a Classical Mythology course which is a field I am deeply fascinated by so retaining information and studying wasn’t really an imposition. It was also a blend of history, literature, and theory making it very similar to an English course. The exam itself was just term identification and essay questions, nothing outside my wheelhouse. Astronomy, however, is (if you’ll pardon the pun) worlds away from that. This is, of course, why I took it, however, the prospect was still daunting.

I don’t think I’ve faced so much anxiety over a midterm since high school. I reread every textbook chapter, redid all the online learning modules, made quizzes out of homework questions, compiled class notes, and more. I haven’t committed this much effort to a test in years and no matter how much work I put in I was convinced that I was just not smart enough to be safe.

After a very long week, I opened the exam with my pages upon pages of notes ready (it was open note) and found that it was only twelve questions. My anxiety skyrocketed. We had an hour for twelve questions. A ridiculous percent of my grade was only twelve questions. I swore I was screwed. And then I looked at the first one: What was your favorite thing you observed either naked eye or through a telescope so far in this class? … It was honestly rather underwhelming.

Unfortunately the other eleven questions were not as easy, but I was able to answer half of them without my notes, which was far more than I expected. Were they all simple, relatively speaking? Yes, but I went in prepared to scour my notes for every question, speed reading and praying to find the answers before time ran out. This was a much different experience. I still struggled with a couple questions and I know I got one wrong because I used math which the course is designed to work around, but still. Half the questions answered with no notes! And because I had some time when I was done I was able to check those answers and found that they were all right (to the best of my knowledge).

I spent over a week stress-studying and convincing myself that I couldn’t do this exam, yet I did okay. I feel like I forgot that while I may not be a STEM person I am still a student. All those study skills you learn in high school don’t just stop working because you graduate and there is something to be said in trusting the work you put in. I kept telling myself that nothing I did would be enough because I was just not a science person, but that’s not true. Did I have to put in more effort than someone who better clicks with astronomy? Yes, but that’s okay.

Going forward, whatever midterms, finals, or tests in general that I have to face, it will be beneficial to remember this exam. Trust the effort you put in and have faith that you are capable of things beyond your comfort zone. I will be bummed if this grade turns out to be subpar, but I don’t think anything will match the relief and joy of realizing that I was prepared and that I could apply myself to this class regardless of talent.

I hope this reflection finds you all happy, healthy, and, if you’re a student, clear of any outstanding midterm work be that paper, project, or test! Have a spook-tastic Halloween!