First Midterms in College: How to Stay Organized in the Dorm

The first university exams of the semester—midterms—usually take place between mid-October and late
November, between the sixth and tenth weeks of class. They aren’t listed on the official calendar: each
course lists them in its course syllabus. If you live in a dorm, preparing for them comes down to three things: knowing the exact date, having a
set place to study outside your room, and planning your week so you get enough sleep.

The academic calendar indicates when classes begin, when Christmas is, and when the regular January exam period is. Midterm exams are not listed there. They are listed in the course syllabus for each course, under “Continuous Assessment.”

What you can do, though, is count the weeks. In the 2026–27 school year:

Sources: Each university's official 2026–27 academic calendars. Individual schools may adjust dates.

If you started on September 7, week six begins on October 12. Week ten begins on November 9. That's when the first midterms, assignments, and group presentations usually take place.

Three things that make your week:

• October 12 (Monday). A long weekend for many. It’s also the week when some teachers give the first test.
• November 2 (Monday). Since the 1st falls on a Sunday, Madrid and Andalusia will observe the holiday on Monday. Another long weekend right in the middle of midterm exam season.
• November 9 (Monday, Madrid). La Almudena. If you’re a student at a university in Madrid, you can count on it.

The first thing you need to do this week: open the course syllabus for each class and write down all the exam, assignment due, and presentation dates in a single calendar. Ten minutes per class. That way, you’ll avoid the surprise of having two midterms on the same Tuesday.

The room is fine for studying for half an hour before bed. But not for three hours straight. There's the bed, the fridge, and your cell phone—which gets great reception on the table in your room.

Coworking spaces and study rooms work for one simple reason: you go there to study, and that's it. You sit down, others are doing the same thing, and when you get up, you're done.

At StepHouse residences, the study areas are not the same at every location. Here is what each residence's website says:

How to get the most out of it:

• Go at the same time every day. If you’re at the coworking space at 5:00 p.m., by 5:00 p.m. it’s no longer a choice. You just go.
• Use the private rooms for group study. Coworking spaces are meant for quiet work. Going over a topic out loud with three classmates works better in a closed room.
• Leave your cell phone in your room if the exam is in less than a week. It sounds like an overreaction. It works.
• Reserve the room at the front desk. The front desk is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Do it in October, not the day before the midterm, when half the dorm has had the same idea.

This routine doesn't explain how to study. It explains when, where, and how much, so that you'll be well-rested when you take the exam. Think about a midterm on a Tuesday morning.

Two details that make all the difference in a residence:

• The weekend before isn't for going home. Or maybe it is, but take your plans for Saturday and Sunday with you and stick to them. Three hours on the train without even opening your study materials don’t count.
• The night before, he sleeps seven or eight hours. There are plans at the dorm on the weekends. Monday doesn't have to be one of them.

If you have two midterms in the same week, split them up as follows: take one in the morning, the other in the afternoon, and the one that carries the most weight toward your grade over the weekend.

You won't find the Pomodoro Technique here. If you have trouble getting started, we already covered that in our August post, How to Stop Procrastinating in College. This post is about the organizational mistakes we see every fall:

• Thinking that the midterm doesn't count. In a continuous assessment system, a midterm exam can account for 20 or 30 percent of the final grade. It says so in the course guide. Read it.
• Let the holidays catch you off guard. The long weekends on October 12 and November 2 might seem like time off. If you have a midterm that week, those are your study days.
• Studying in bed. You end up sleeping poorly and studying even worse. Both at the same time.
• Staying up all night. The next day, the exam lasts two hours, and you've been awake for twenty-six hours.
• Copy your neighbor's schedule. Some people study best at 11:00 p.m., while others are most productive at 9:00 a.m. Try it out for a week and stick with the schedule that works for you.
• Going into the regular exam period blindly. If you do poorly on a midterm, it’s not the end of the world: you have the regular exam session in January. But whatever you don’t understand in November will still be just as unclear in January. For that part, we have a 4-week plan for the January exams.

The first midterms are usually held between mid-October and late November, during the sixth through tenth weeks of classes. The exact date is set by each course in its syllabus or announced by the professor; the university’s official calendar only lists the regular January exam period.

This is the official exam period at the end of each four-month term. In the first semester of 2026–27, it takes place in January: from the 8th to the 25th at the University of Seville, from the 11th to the 21st at the UAM School of Law, and from the 11th to the 25th at the University of Granada. If you fail, you have the make-up exam period (in February at the University of Granada, in June at the UAM).

It depends on the weight of the exam and the course, but for a midterm that counts toward continuous assessment, one week of studying 1.5 to 3 hours a day—plus reviewing class material—is usually enough. The most effective approach is to spread out the study hours over different days rather than cramming them all into the night before.

For long sessions, the study room or coworking space. You separate your resting area from your work area, so there are fewer distractions. The bedroom is best for short study sessions.

In most courses, you can make up for it with the rest of your continuous assessment or with the final exam during the regular exam period. Check the course syllabus to see if the midterm eliminates certain material or if there’s a minimum grade required to calculate your average.

Open the course catalogs today and mark down the dates. Then, head down to the coworking space and see what times are available. If you're still looking for a place to live this semester or for the second quarter, check out the StepHouse residence halls and see what study spaces each one offers.

Reserve a study room at the front desk this week.