Midterms are starting to sneak up at this point in the semester and I guarantee that students have been prepped and given all possible resources by staff and other students to tackle them. Therefore I would like to focus on the family perspective of midterms. It is false to believe that midterms only pertain to the students. In reality, midterms are just as pertinent to the friends and families of the students taking them. 

One thing to keep in mind as a family member is that your student’s schedule gets undeniably busier around midterm time. Those ‘breaks’ they had planned out in their schedule start to get filled up with more homework, studying, or even snippets of sleeping. This means that they may not be able to give you the 30 min or hour on the phone that they could at the beginning of the year, but don’t take it personally. This just means that your student is taking midterms seriously, as they should.

Since your student is going to hit the ground running with their midterms, a piece of advice I would give families pertaining to midterms specifically would be to show your student support. Whether this is by a funny text message with a meme, mailing them a card/care package or leaving them a voicemail when you know they can’t pick up, say things like “good luck,” “you’ll do great” or anything else encouraging.  The smallest gesture like these can create a wave of motivation your student may be running out of as the week wears on.

With all this being said, it is also good to note that it’s only a couple more weeks after midterms that the birds flock back to the nest for Thanksgiving break. This is a great time for families to get caught up and for the student to catch their breath and celebrate their hard work for the first half of the semester!

~Zoe

 

Zoe Pixler, a freshman majoring in Photography and Art Education, is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma where she is the Goals and Resource Coordinator.  She is also one of the two Family Orientation Coordinators.