Tackling School Exams in My 30s Is Completely Different Than It Was in My 20s
By: Rebeca Ansar
Tags: Students, Blog, College, Education, Self

Being a student again requires a new mindset.

After the somewhat harrowing experience of being an undergrad at a university where students rely on the curve to save their grades, I was quite anxious about attending school again.

This time, I would be going for my higher education.

I knew from the start that things would have to play out differently. I didn’t want the ordeal of more stress-induced hair loss or the anxiety that made me feel like I didn’t even deserve to hold a textbook.

Yet, things are even more challenging now than they were back then.

Now that I’ve decided to pursue my Master’s Degree, I’m attending classes, completing homework, and studying for tests alongside a full-time career and more adult responsibilities on my plate.

My body is also in its thirties. It can’t binge party and then rally a few hours later. My body refuses to skimp on sleep. It needs me to prioritize taking care of it, no matter what deadlines loom on the horizon.

What I mean by this is: in order to think straight, I need to wake up at a reasonable hour, watch my alcohol consumption, avoid food that is nutritionally empty, and have a plan.

Who is this woman and what has she done with the frazzled twenty-something whose backpack overflowed with loose-leaf papers?

Back then, my strategy was: cram, crash, rest, and repeat.

One grueling exam season has remained fresh in my memory. I spent a few days cramming for my Chemistry midterm, took the mind-numbing exam (which ended at 9 pm), and then ran home to begin writing the midterm essay that was due in another class on the following day at noon.

I hadn’t touched the assignment beforehand, so I barely slept that night. After I trudged zombie-like to my class and turned in the paper, my immune system crashed. I immediately got sick.

I know why this happened. I was a young adult who hadn’t yet figured out how to manage her time.

But, it didn’ matter so much back then. I still lived my life that way: buckets of energy, followed by a crash, followed by some rest, and then repeat.

I have to take better care of my body in my thirties. It doesn’t respond as kindly to misuse. The bounce-back takes longer, and the lost time costs more.

I’m surprised by this woman I have transformed into.

I have become methodical because now I understand that time management is what decides whether or not I pass a class.

I print out my take-home exams and read through the questions to get a general grasp of the time commitment. I count the questions and divide my work strategically across the days I have to complete the assignment.

Who is this woman and what has she done with the frazzled twenty-something whose backpack overflowed with loose-leaf papers?

Okay, enough of me referring to myself in the third person. Really, though, sometimes the present me seems astonishingly different from the past me, in a good way.

I could have been much more successful earlier in my life.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but if I had figured out how to manage my time and prioritize my responsibilities correctly, I would have gotten a lot further in my twenties.

Now I do it because strategically organizing my life is a necessity.

I have to take better care of my body in my thirties. It doesn’t respond as kindly to misuse. The bounce-back takes longer, and the lost time costs more.

While it has admittedly been challenging to resume the status of “student” and mold my life around class meetings and assignment due dates, I am finally doing the hard stuff for me, on my terms, in the pursuit of my own goals.

That’s another big reason why procrastination has become magnificently unappealing.