Although you would be forgiven for not realizing it, we have actually been in school for quite a long time already. One might not expect this realization to come as a surprise, but even though class has been in session for over a month, many students are still scrambling to get some basic school necessities. To help you figure out if you are one of these people, here is a helpful guide to determine if you are quite ready for midterms. TL;DR? You aren’t.

1. Instead of buying a folder to hold papers and handouts, you have opted for the “shove it to the bottom of your backpack” technique. This clever method will not only ensure that your papers are hopelessly crumbled, but it will also guarantee that at least a few of them will be gently dusted in a fine layer of crumbs and pencil shavings.

2. Rather than buy the required textbooks, you have chosen to use the free Google Books preview. Sure, you might only be able to view a few pages of the actual book, but you have convinced yourself it covers all of the important points and is sufficient for writing your thesis.

3. When you walk into your dorm room, instead of hanging up your clothes, you simply throw them into a pile because “Mom will wash them for me.”

4. In lieu of getting pens and pencils, you have become a master of borrowing/never giving back all writing utensils.

5. Instead of taking notes, you have managed to rationalize all lectures as “intro material,” information that does not need to be written down because your professor is still just giving an overview of the course.

6. You are genuinely shocked when your friends say they do not want to go out on a Tuesday night, even though school “just started.”

7. You are even more shocked when they tell you that Sundays are not actually FunDays and that they cannot join you on your tour of South Bend’s historic bar scene.

8. You have begun to realize that your new roommate is not just “going through a phase,” but that their previous kind, gentle personality was actually the true passing phase.

9. When you go on a study date, you actually study.

10. You realize, with a sinking sense of horror, that most midterms start Monday.

Declan Feeley is a senior theology and finance double major whose interests include writing and investment theory. Declan can be contacted by email at dfeeley@nd.edu.