St. Patrick’s Day may charm students in March, but it will take more than luck for them to see the spring semester through.

As the semester approaches its halfway mark, it’s easy for students to get lazy and lose motivation to keep up with school work.

But the good news is there are plenty of ways to clear your head, reduce stress and make looming grades feel less dreaded and more manageable.

Before you become overwhelmed with all of your upcoming assignments and tests, remind yourself that you have plenty of time to turn things around if you aren’t earning the grade you wish you were in some of your classes.

If you are earning a grade you’re happy with, don’t let it go to your head and decide now is the time to slack off.

Keep up the good work and don’t expect to keep your grade up by putting in any less effort than you have since the semester started.

The great thing about having classes on Canvas is that grades are never a guessing game. The grade book is organized so that students can see exactly what they will need on each assignment in order to receive the grade they desire.

Take advantage of this tool to reduce anxiety about your grades and calm your nerves before testing. Based on how your professor weighs each type of assignment, you may find that you only need a 70 percent on that super hard test in order to pass the course.

Plug in theoretical scores for your remaining assignments and make a chart of exactly what you need on each one to meet the overall grade you want.

This way, you only have to prepare enough to meet a minimum score and you can spend the rest of your time enjoying life outside of school.

Take care of the not-so-fun stuff, like school work, first. Once you have a concrete idea of what’s due when and how well you need to do on it, you can check off each assignment as you complete it and you’ll be flying out of school and into summer vacation before you know it.

If you want to take the weekend off to have fun, you can because you know ahead of time when everything is due. Don’t be afraid to plan a day when you will complete future assignments, so that you don’t get trapped by procrastination.

Above all else, don’t make excuses. You’ll get the grade you deserve and your professor will likely notice if you are making extra efforts. Don’t forget, you only get back the work you put in.

Whether you’re focusing on school, sports or both, don’t let the half-time score determine the end result of the big game.