Over the past two weeks, the class of 2011 has experienced for the first time the wonders of the college midterm.

For some, the tests were easier than expected and for others, let’s just say that more time should have been spent in the library.

In each of my exams my fellow first years seemed to fall into one of two categories, which I have deemed the balanced and the unbalanced.

The balanced are characterized by a calm collected manner in class, casually reviewing before a test or not at all. The unbalanced are characterized by frantic flipping of book pages or printed articles as they try to cram in every last bit of information before the test. Sadly the majority fell into the unbalanced group, leading me to realize that the class of 2011 is in some serious trouble.

Now you are probably thinking, “How do a few kids studying in a panicked manner spell disaster for us?”

Well it’s really quite simple. The unbalanced are unable to handle their professional lives (school) with their social lives (partying), and the two are coming into conflict more and more frequently, leading to lower and lower grades among the class of 2011.

For those of you who think I’m about to spend the next few paragraphs bashing partying, you are sorely mistaken. There is nothing wrong with going out and having a good time. In fact, I encourage everyone to go out at least once a week and go to a party; they are great places to meet good people, have a good time and unwind. But what is important to realize (and here is the catch) is that partying, like everything else, has a time and a place. For example, this past Sunday night I found myself in quite a pickle. Monday I had a midterm in my intro to international relations class, which I had been studying for throughout the day. A couple of friends invited me to go hang out and as tempting as it was, I declined.

Despite how lame this is going to sound, I am actually happy I made that choice. The test on Monday went well and I am confident I got a good grade. However, not so many people seem to make the right decisions. In another class, as we all shuffled out after the midterm, I overheard conversation of two students behind me, one talking about how he were so exhausted from the past night’s activities and did not know anything on the test. His friend then turned and asked if he were going out that night to which the exhausted one responded, “Hell yeah, dude!”

What I am trying to get at here is the same point I have made in my past two articles. We are no longer in high school, guys, which means Mommy and Daddy are not here to get on our butts about doing our work, or telling us we can’t go out on a weeknight. I think some of us have become so attached to having others run our lives that when we finally are given full control, we resort to satisfying impulsive desires. If it’s the middle of the week and you have a class at 8 a.m., whether there is an exam or not, maybe going out and partying till 4 a.m. is not the best plan. But then again, that is just me. Even more importantly, unlike high school, in college you don’t have five or six tests a semester, you have two or three. For those of you who are not following, that means that if you bomb one, your grade is essentially shot for the semester. Here is another shocker: Your professors will probably not be awarding extra credit or retake tests.

I can’t control what you do, your professors can’t either, nor your parents. Every choice you make from this point on is totally 100 percent your own. I do hope some of you read this article and plan to make some changes to your after-class schedules, but if you don’t, that is fine too. What is important is that you are not shocked by the outcomes of your own decisions and that you take responsibility for your own grades, because it’s not the professor’s fault, it’s yours. A good rule of thumb when it comes to partying are the words of the great Tony Sinclair, and the slogan for Tanqueray gin, “Always in moderation.”

About the writer:

James Lucente is a first-year double major in international relations and broadcast journalism. He can be reached at [email protected].