Preparing for midterms can feel a bit like preparing for the apocalypse.

No matter how many hatches you have battened down, or sorry-in-advance emails you have already sent your TA, sometimes rouge zombies walk by and grievously injure your GPA.

It’s the cold-water-splashing, kick-your-own-ass-ing reality check, that frankly we all sort of appreciate.    

While it can be natural to feel personally victimized by a class or even one’s grade point as a whole, just remember: Even when it may seem the most desolate, grades tend to be resilient things. Much like bad high school nicknames or strep throat, they always seem to find a way to come back around.

But beyond simple optimism, there are some staple procedures that one can follow when preparing for midterms. 

It turns out, classic rules for surviving a zombie apocalypse can be well re-purposed for surviving this arguably less physically-traumatizing but equally mentally-stressful time.

Below I have detailed some potentially-helpful protocol for the upcoming event:

Assemble your survival kit:

Pre-buy your celebratory/ drinking-until-you-can’t-feel-feelings beverages beforehand, because every second spent at the store is a second that you could be spent forcing yourself to study.

While out and about, acquire additional supplies for surviving the week. This may include some backup pencil lead, tissues, and a McDonald’s application to keep you motivated.

Prepare your meals:

Collect your canned goods and prepare the pantry, because zombies or no zombies we all know that this time of the semester tends to be pretty aggressive on the wallet.

Avoid the additional pressure of stressing about stress-eating, by shamelessly accepting that if four big Macs and two bags of Doritos are what it takes to get through this week, so be it.

Run drills:

Lock yourself in your room with nothing but your study materials and your grandmother’s phone number to put some perspective on what is really the less-pleasant activity.

Work on your study guides in an entirely silent room with only a very old, very loud analog clock to simulate a test-taking environment.

Bring onions in your lunch and hold them up to your face in order to practice holding back tears in class. 

Unfortunately, living in what is basically a dystopian society is never a fun way to spend the week.

On the plus side, however, unlike an actual zombie apocalypse, this one has a marked end.

And while your brain may feel as if it was consumed by the undead come Friday, there is no cure for such a condition quite like the upcoming no-responsibility, test-your-alcohol-consumption-capabilities spring break.