So you failed your midterms…

All of us came into Waterloo at or near the top of our classes. We are used to 80s and 90s and it can be quite a shock coming into university. If you went to a good high school, 1A probably wasn’t too challenging and if you didn’t do too well in 1A, you can always blame it on the adjustment to university. However, it is very common to fail your first midterms in 1B, and here are some steps you can take (regardless of your term).

Don’t panic: Midterms are usually not worth too much and even a 0 can be recovered with a good enough final mark. You can also make up some of the marks on assignments and labs, especially in earlier terms. Don’t forget that sometimes a few little mistakes can completely destroy a midterm mark but finals have much more questions and you therefore have a much lower chance of being sunk by a sudden mind-blank or miscalculation.

Set realistic goals: A good goal might be to use labs to bring your mark up to 50% going into the final. You might have to settle for a 70% average rather than the 80% you originally expected. The students who obsess about squeezing out every last mark usually burn out. Think about how the marks are allocated, where you can get easy marks and how to best spend your time. Recognize the importance of sleep, extra-curriculars and your social life and decide what you can realistically achieve with a normal amount of effort.

Figure out the fundamental reason you failed: For example, if you did not understand the concepts, memorizing more past exams is not going to help. If you understood the concepts but choked on the midterm, you may need to do more practice problems for the final. Don’t keep doing the same thing if it’s not working.

Figure out a study style that works for you: A lot of us didn’t study at all in high school. It’s very easy to just assume that studying will come as easily as all the other skills we’ve managed to master intuitively over the years. However, studying is an imprecise art and science with its own little tips and tricks, and there are study skills workshops available on campus to help you learn some techniques and skills.

Finding a good study to break ratio: Some people have shorter intervals whereas others have longer. Planning out in advance when and what you want to study and for how long can be very helpful. Reward yourself for meeting your goals, but don’t be afraid to be a little flexible and accommodate your life. Try different methods and figure out what works for you.

Seek help from your classmates: Study groups are a useful tool, but you have to be careful to figure out how you can work effectively with one another. For example, having similar styles, working at a similar pace and being able to resist temptation to slack off are all important. A study group can be a waste of time if not planned carefully, but it can be very useful for quizzing each other, solving problems together and explaining principles to one another. Explaining something to another person is a great way to reinforce your own understanding. On the other side of the coin, having one of the smart kids explain the midterm questions or helping you with some of the key concepts is very valuable and usually they are pretty good about helping people out.

Talk to the prof: If you have not done so already, now is the time to start talking to the prof and TAs for additional help. One option is talking to the prof about getting weight moved to final, but note that profs are under no obligation whatsoever to do so, so do NOT count on this.

If nothing else, profs may give you advice about how to succeed in their course, what kind of questions they ask and what material is most useful to study. Think about what the profs emphasize and spend a lot of time on. A lot of profs are sympathetic to students, especially if you consistently demonstrate effort by doing assignments, extra homework problems, going to office hours and tutorials for help, etc.

If you think you deserved a higher mark, go to the prof and ask about re-marking. However, if you deserved the mark you got, forget about it. Don’t beat yourself up to the point that you are miserable, but do take responsibility for your own successes and failures.

Thanks go to Kal Sobel and Alexandra Collins for their input for this article