Test taking is often one of the most stressful areas of school for many students around the globe. Especially in junior high and high schools, more people are pressured by their parents to do ‘perfect’. However, for ten year old me, school was a breeze, and homework and exams could not be going better. While many others were struggling with their work and unable to achieve their dream scores, I was able to easily get 100’s on almost every test. As I was in elementary school at the time, I had no idea what was in store for me in junior high.
I had been nervous for the first days of school, thinking that school would be much more tiresome. However for the first few days, everything was going smoothly. There was absolutely no trouble with any of the homework and the amount of study I had to do was similar to the previous year. This relaxed me, and I smiled to myself, thinking it would be the easiest year of school of my life. The first quiz rolled in, and I was able to breeze right through it for the first 100 of the year. After proudly showing my parents the grade, I skipped back to my room, content with the amount of free time I still had. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this is a lot easier than I thought! I can probably get through all my classes with minimal study and still get straight A’s!’ Unfortunately for me, I was being very naive.
A few more quizzes came in the next week, and surprisingly, the tests were still quite easy. I had done a bit of studying and reviewing back at home, and this was obviously more than enough to compensate for the difficulty of the tests. This raised my confidence even more, and I decided that the next time, I would try studying even less. This was the worst decision I made the entire year.
The next week, a few of the teachers announced that the harder units were now going to start, since the students were most likely settled into the study type by then. This faltered my confidence in the undemanding style of test taking, but referencing back to the previous exams, I reassured myself that it would still be easy.
The moment that I read the first few questions on the test, I immediately thought to myself, ‘I’m screwed.’ Half the terms I did not recognize at all, and the other ones were still very vague in my memory. My own confidence had led me to believe that no studying or reviewing was required, and I also had listened with minimal effort during class. Panicking, I took much longer on the test than usual, and ended up turning it in with a groan.
Fortunately for me, the test only required a bit of common sense, and I was able to pass with an A-. As naive as I was, I did not learn my lesson from this. This was not even close to the hardest test, and as I took more and more tests, I could see my grades slowly but surely declining. Finally, I decided that it was enough, and actually started studying and reviewing all the pieces of work relentlessly. The next quiz, I scored the first 100 in a while.
After that week, I realized that I was being slightly egotistical in thinking that I would be able to get perfect scores on every exam without even trying. Most importantly, I grew out of the ‘elementary’ style of working and started to mature in how I treated schoolwork, which gave me a lot more satisfaction when gaining a high grade.
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