If someone has ever felt their temporal lobes pulsating nonstop while studying a textbook, that will mean nothing to them in the next month and a half, then they have experienced something called midterm-stress.

“Midterms are a big part of your grade and considering they’re cumulative there can be a slim chance of passing,” fresh­man finance major Mitchell Far­rell said.

The body owns certain stress­ors that are stimulated and cause people to act and think in certain ways. Midterms can almost be re­lated to several different stressors such as: chronic, life changing, job and/or frustrating stressors.

“The words, midterm and fi­nal, are associated with fear,” Farrell said.

According to Ashland Torres, writer for The Current Online, “with half of the semester nearly over, midterms are the looming darkness over every students head.”

Although students may pre­pare for the looming darkness of midterms, even the prepared stu­dent experiences the worries and stress when faced with the pres­sure that comes along with mid­terms. If pondered on, the idea of being well prepared isn’t that easy to come by for college stu­dents. Most college students not only have to worry about mid­terms, but also worry about oth­er factors such as: their futures, their money, maintaining certain GPAs, holding onto a part-time job, etc.

According to US News, 20 percent of students report anxi­ety so stressful that it affects their grades on the actual test. With this many tasks it also easy for students to forget important things, simply because their minds are off somewhere else. Due to distractions, students may also find themselves realizing at the last minute they must take a midterm, causing an alarming re­action.

As the body reacts to alarm­ing news, the heart has a reac­tion. The sudden stop of heart is the body’s GAS (generalized adaptation syndrome) system be­ing activated. The way this sys­tem works is that generally when someone is initially told some­thing alarming they experience 3 phases; they are: the alarm, resistance and exhaustion stages. For example, when a student sud­denly remembers a big test he/she is startled triggering their stress­ors. The second stage, resistance, is when the student will shake it off and say that they have enough time to cram the night before. Then the final stage, exhaustion, is when the body literally gives up, they call it quits because the body can no longer take what is being thrown at it. The informa­tion being read is not being syn­thesized and people will go to sleep because they are literally exhausted.

Stress is literally a bodily re­minder. Some ways to deal with midterm stress are simple such as: getting good sleep, exercise so the body remains in tip-top shape, study a week or two ahead, etc. The next time the syllabus reads midterm make sure to plan ahead because with that single step they are avoiding stressing themselves out. Remember, stress is what one makes it.