The Chatter of Students
For whatever reason, I generally dislike listening to other people discuss an exam in that period just before they are about to take it and the time between when it's over and before the grades are received.
As you sit in the classroom, awaiting to take an exam, you always hear several nearby students discussing what they studied. Often, I'll hear them mention some topic that I didn't actually bother to study. Of course, it's too late by then to look it up, so the resultant thought of, "Are we actually supposed to know this?" is nothing more than an additional nagging worry and no help whatsoever. Often times, the topic in question really is not on the exam and is no more than the concern of an over-achieving student attempting to cover all of his or her bases (which is not a bad thing, by any means... it is largely my unfortunate tendency to procrastinate that forces me to have far more selective methods of studying). Still, if I am to worry about my level of preparedness for an exam, let it be the night before, when I'm still able to do something about it. At the point in which I finish my last review of my notes, pack up my stuff, and go to class, I want to be able to put any nagging stresses out of my mind and say, "All right, let's do this thing."
Similarly, immediately after an exam has been taken, students congregate in the halls and talk to their friends about the specific exam questions, and if he got the same answer she got, and "Did you also get like 6 'True's in a row? Oh, good!" Discussions like this can make a person second-guess their answers, which is again a pointless worry, because the test is over and the answers cannot be changed. Of course, you can't always trust that just because a few students had one answer means that it was the correct answer, but that fear that you might have been wrong can still linger. When a test is over, I like to put it mostly out of my mind until I see the grade, so I don't generally care to discuss it with others or look things up afterward and start counting just how many of the questions I was unsure about I actually got wrong or right. I find I gain nothing from this, so it's just an extra source of unnecessary stress.
So I try to ignore the chatter of students when it comes to exams, even though it is often hard to avoid. On the other hand, I do have to wonder if I'd be guilty of doing the same thing if I had friends in my classes to actually discuss the exams with. Because, when it comes down to it, this behavior seems to be very much a result of human nature. And who am I to rebel against humanity?
As you sit in the classroom, awaiting to take an exam, you always hear several nearby students discussing what they studied. Often, I'll hear them mention some topic that I didn't actually bother to study. Of course, it's too late by then to look it up, so the resultant thought of, "Are we actually supposed to know this?" is nothing more than an additional nagging worry and no help whatsoever. Often times, the topic in question really is not on the exam and is no more than the concern of an over-achieving student attempting to cover all of his or her bases (which is not a bad thing, by any means... it is largely my unfortunate tendency to procrastinate that forces me to have far more selective methods of studying). Still, if I am to worry about my level of preparedness for an exam, let it be the night before, when I'm still able to do something about it. At the point in which I finish my last review of my notes, pack up my stuff, and go to class, I want to be able to put any nagging stresses out of my mind and say, "All right, let's do this thing."
Similarly, immediately after an exam has been taken, students congregate in the halls and talk to their friends about the specific exam questions, and if he got the same answer she got, and "Did you also get like 6 'True's in a row? Oh, good!" Discussions like this can make a person second-guess their answers, which is again a pointless worry, because the test is over and the answers cannot be changed. Of course, you can't always trust that just because a few students had one answer means that it was the correct answer, but that fear that you might have been wrong can still linger. When a test is over, I like to put it mostly out of my mind until I see the grade, so I don't generally care to discuss it with others or look things up afterward and start counting just how many of the questions I was unsure about I actually got wrong or right. I find I gain nothing from this, so it's just an extra source of unnecessary stress.
So I try to ignore the chatter of students when it comes to exams, even though it is often hard to avoid. On the other hand, I do have to wonder if I'd be guilty of doing the same thing if I had friends in my classes to actually discuss the exams with. Because, when it comes down to it, this behavior seems to be very much a result of human nature. And who am I to rebel against humanity?