UNC students adjust to test-taking during a virtual midterm season

For many students, virtual college has presented challenges to learning and remaining focused. 

And with the arrival of midterm season, students have had to make many adjustments to their studying habits while adapting to changing living environments and remote learning. 

“It’s definitely been a bit of a learning curve for me,” said Tarini Agrawal, a sophomore pre-business major. “Nothing really compares to in person classes.” 

Last year, Agrawal said she was used to going to Davis Library and booking a study room for the entire day, or finding other quiet places to study. This year, she has found it difficult to focus in her off-campus apartment and hasn’t really felt prepared for any of her virtual midterms. 

“The full focus is never there with remote learning,” Agrawal said. 

Ella Thomas, a sophomore environmental science major who is currently living in an off-campus house, said she has also had a difficult experience with remote learning. 

With six other people living in the house with her, Thomas said the internet connection can be unreliable, and her Zoom meetings have kicked her off multiple times. 

“Midterms during the remote semester are really hard because it’s hard to differentiate between studying time and homework time and classwork time because they’re all kind of in the same space,” she said. 

With her living situation, Thomas said she feels like she is studying more in a group setting than she is individually, facing more distractions, and getting less done. 

“Sometimes I study in my room by myself, but I do tend to be with other people studying,” she said. “So it probably takes me a lot longer to get things done because I’m talking with other people.” 

Rachel Reynolds, a first-year student, is back at her home in Jefferson, North Carolina. Prior to the University de-densifying residence halls, she said she was living in Hinton James Residence Hall, and is now struggling to adapt to remote learning in her family’s home.

Reynolds said making the adjustment to being a college student is a rough transition as it is — but doing so amid a pandemic makes it much harder.

“Having to figure it out on my own at home, and not being surrounded by other students is also difficult because I feel the most motivated when I’m around other students who are in the same or similar circumstances as me in terms of like, having homework and having to do class and stuff.” 

Living at home with her parents, who aren’t having to grapple with remote schoolwork, has presented challenges for Reynolds, as she doesn’t have that extra motivation from her peers to study. 

“I was really, really nervous because I really struggle with tests as it is,” Reynolds said. “Especially taking them from home is really difficult for me because I need to be in a testing environment where I’m surrounded by other students who are also testing, because I can better zone in on what I’m supposed to be focused on.” 

This semester, studying and preparing for midterms is looking a lot different for many students. 

Agrawal, Thomas and Reynolds all said they don't feel prepared for their midterms and have had to employ various strategies to adapt to their changing living and academic environments amid the pandemic. 

Now that everything is remote, Agrawal said she usually studies at her dining room table, and has found that turning off her phone and putting it in a different room has been helpful to stay focused. 

Thomas and Reynolds both pointed out the advantage of lecture videos being posted on Sakai. In preparation for midterms, they said they have been able to look over past lectures and review concepts. 

“I really do enjoy the fact that I can look over lectures,” Thomas said. “Instead of viewing a lecture one time and then having to take notes extremely quickly, I can pause the video and rewind, and I can go back and look at things multiple times.”

To concentrate better and block out distractions, Thomas said she likes to put in headphones and listen to lo-fi study beats. 

For Reynolds, as someone who studies best with classmates, friends and doing study groups, she said she’s taken the initiative to connect with classmates virtually. 

“What I’ve done is I’ve made group chats, and then within those group chats, we’ve set up times to hop on Zoom calls to do a little study group,” she said. “And so that has definitely helped me feel more prepared, knowing that there are other students in the same boat as me.” 

university@dailytarheel.com