Hey, it’s Rahul & Lani.
Midterms are coming up.
For some of you, they’re this week. For others, they’re right around the corner.
And if we’re being honest, a lot of people are already stressed.
Not because they didn’t try, but because the semester didn’t go exactly as planned.
You might have skipped more lectures than intended.
Assignments might have taken longer than expected, and now everything feels stacked.
If that’s you, this Sunday Setup is for you.
This isn’t about fixing your entire semester.
It’s about recovering before midterms instead of spiraling.
LinkedIn: Lani Aremu, Rahul Lakdawala
Sunday Setups - How to Recover Before Midterms
First, let’s get one thing straight.
If you feel behind right now, that doesn’t mean you’re screwed.
But it does mean you can’t pretend the plan is still working.
The biggest mistake students make before midterms is trying to “catch up” on everything. Rewatching lectures. Rereading slides. Starting from the beginning
It feels responsible.
It’s also how people waste the little time they have left.
Recovery starts with cutting, not adding.
Step 1: Stop trying to save everything
Midterms don’t test everything equally. They test specific problem types under time pressure.
Your job right now isn’t studying.
It’s triage.
Identify:
The topics that keep showing up in assignments
The problems that slow you down the most
The things that would derail you if they appeared on the exam
That’s your priority list. Everything else is secondary.
Step 2: Switch from “learning” to “performing”
Reading feels productive.
Before midterms, it’s low leverage.
If you’re short on time, you don’t need to feel like you understand something. You need to know if you can do it.
That means:
Solving problems without notes
Timing yourself
Getting stuck and fixing it
If you can’t solve a problem under pressure, you’re not ready yet.
That’s not failure. That’s information.
Use it to decide what to work on next.
Step 3: Lock one non-negotiable rule
Here’s the rule that keeps things from getting worse.
From now until your midterms, the priority is simple: don’t let assignments or practice problems fall further behind.
Not perfection.
Not full understanding.
Just forward progress.
Falling further behind compounds stress fast.
Staying current gives you leverage, even if everything else feels shaky.
Midterms are stressful. That’s real.
But stress doesn’t mean you’re out of options. It means it’s time to simplify, focus, and execute.
Sunday Setups aren’t about perfect semesters. They’re about stopping bad weeks from turning into bad months.
You don’t need to do more.
You need to do less, better, starting now.
See you next Sunday🦫,