It's that time of year again... time to take midterms. They come so soon, and sound so intimidating; my roommate had one as early as 1.5 weeks into the quarter. I can honestly say that I have the worst study skills ever.

My strategy is this: I skim the textbook and pick up all the basic facts and equations. During the exam, I rely on my common sense and intuition to put everything together. What happens is I'm still taking the test 10 minutes after the bell rings, and the teacher is practically yanking it from my hands as I try to scribble some final incorrect answers.

The results are inconsistent: sometimes I'll end up with a delicious A or B+, and other times I'll get a test back and the paper will be soaked in red ink, with occasional dry white areas showing through. If you were to plot all of my grades onto a curve, and then construct an amusement park ride using the curve as the basis of the track, I would first make sure the ride was within 5 miles of a hospital and a law firm.

The thing is, I'm not too worried about bad grades. College classes are usually very generous with curves, so your best bet is to hope everyone else fails. Or, you could try hard and do well. I heard good things about that strategy.