CW Class: Fear
All these years out of school and then back again, you would think I would be over my fear of tests. I felt sick after I took my English midterm because it was a ridiculous amount of work to be given with less than 70 minutes to complete it. I ended up with a 95.
There's something about being tested that just creates anxiety. I know some people get anxious because they haven't taken good notes and/or didn't study enough, but even some people who take great notes and study hard can get this anxiety.
I thought I did a good job on my history midterm, I mean, I knew what I knew and I'm good at making connections between events as far as history goes. The only anxiety I had there was that the teacher said she would be grading our answers against each other's answers...
At least my test anxiety doesn't overwhelm me the way it does some people. My friend Andrew couldn't take a test to save his life. He is such a smart guy, extremely intelligent, but he froze up on tests and couldn't remember what he needed to remember, or took half of the test time just to get started and then ran out of time. His teachers thought he was lazy and didn't study. He was finally able to get certification from a doctor about his reactions to tests and this allowed him to be able to take tests in the testing center where they give you an unlimited amount of time to finish. It saved his college career.
I think some fears over testing come from the fact that testing is like a judgment. In a way, it is a teacher's way of judging whether or not you learned what was taught. But even if it is just a way to see if you learned anything, it still feels like your intelligence is being tested.
Andrew said that he always felt stupid as a kid because of how poorly he did on tests. He ended up with a C average after high school and because of that, went to a community college instead of a 4 year school. I wonder how many kids out there who test poorly because of anxiety don't even finish high school?
There's something about being tested that just creates anxiety. I know some people get anxious because they haven't taken good notes and/or didn't study enough, but even some people who take great notes and study hard can get this anxiety.
I thought I did a good job on my history midterm, I mean, I knew what I knew and I'm good at making connections between events as far as history goes. The only anxiety I had there was that the teacher said she would be grading our answers against each other's answers...
At least my test anxiety doesn't overwhelm me the way it does some people. My friend Andrew couldn't take a test to save his life. He is such a smart guy, extremely intelligent, but he froze up on tests and couldn't remember what he needed to remember, or took half of the test time just to get started and then ran out of time. His teachers thought he was lazy and didn't study. He was finally able to get certification from a doctor about his reactions to tests and this allowed him to be able to take tests in the testing center where they give you an unlimited amount of time to finish. It saved his college career.
I think some fears over testing come from the fact that testing is like a judgment. In a way, it is a teacher's way of judging whether or not you learned what was taught. But even if it is just a way to see if you learned anything, it still feels like your intelligence is being tested.
Andrew said that he always felt stupid as a kid because of how poorly he did on tests. He ended up with a C average after high school and because of that, went to a community college instead of a 4 year school. I wonder how many kids out there who test poorly because of anxiety don't even finish high school?