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The Mid-Semester Slump
The title says it all. I see it every semester with students – starting out with a fresh semester, a new year, and the best of intentions. Folders and notebooks are organized and color coded, and the new calendar eagerly awaits its lines being filled in with a schedule of tests, readings and projects. And then somewhere around the time following midterms and fall break, it hits! This overwhelming wave of apathy, low motivation and, using a term borrowed from my research counterparts, “regression to the mean.” By that I mean our tendency to retreat to our norms, our comfort zones, and what we do naturally. For students with ADHD and other learning difficulties, organization and time management skills don’t always come naturally. Sticking to a regimented study schedule is not the norm – waiting until 9 or 10 the night before a paper is due or much more in line with how these students prefer to work. Good study skills and effective time management are habits built over time. A client recently compared this to developing the perfect golf swing.
At the beginning of each semester, I have my clients bring their notebooks, syllabus for each class, textbooks as well as their weekly class schedule. We set up schedules for each day to study, attend class, even allot time in the schedule to do basic things like eat breakfast or “do nothing” time. We review the schedule again a few weeks after the semester starts to see if we were realistic, and discuss any modifications that need to be made. We also talk about barriers to sticking with the plan and how to minimize these and realistically deal with them. These barriers include social time with friends, difficulty with getting to bed at a reasonable time, and really boring classes that students like to “hide” from.
When midterms roll around, students should have a good sense of what the workload is in each course, and how much studying needs to be done each week. It’s at this point when they begin to realize what they can get away with NOT doing for a class. And the classes they have been working so hard in have really started to exhaust them and a break is needed. The “slump” occurs, in my opinion, because the novelty of the semester has worn off, some degree of burnout has set in, and the adrenaline rush of finals week is not yet here. Additionally, I believe that the change in weather and time change, affect some students significantly. I am diligent in raising this issue with each and every student I meet with, and talking with them about how to plan for the upcoming months. We review long term projects coming up in the next several weeks, as well as regular homework assignments, weekly readings final exams. Sometimes we change the schedule to make it “novel” again, and to adapt to the time change. I will also help students create a reward system for themselves by setting up some very short term and small goals with identified rewards at the end. These rewards range from things like extra time on Facebook, a favorite meal, sleeping in, etc. Avoiding the “slump” altogether is tough, but being aware of what’s happening and planning ahead helps students minimize stress at the end of the semester. For more information about Dr. Wells, please visit her page by clicking this link.
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