I FAILED MY PRACTICE EXAM BUT IT IS OKAY

I am not a good test taker and I have known that since middle school that test always gives me this anxiety. As soon as the teacher says that we begin our test, I immediately forget everything, my mind races, I sometimes focus on the clock too much and weirdly enough, I have this mind battle with myself of if I need to go to the bathroom or if I am just psyching myself out. Overall, tests are not a good time for me. So when I found out that in order to be a certified therapeutic recreation specialist I have to pass a 150 question exam in 3 hours; the first thought I had to myself was “I gotta find a new major, I am never going to pass. ’’ But as I took more classes, and started to fall in love with the curriculum my thought then changed to “okay this is not so bad”. Taking a test on something that you enjoy makes it less painful. Trust me, even though I like what I am learning I still do not like tests. For one of my TR classes that I am in now, we have had a couple homework assignments where we would complete a practice exam, calculate our scores and discuss how we felt during the process. I can tell you right now that I FAILED BOTH OF MY PRACTICE EXAMS. It wasn’t like a few points off. I like FAILED. I was mad at myself at first, when I would talk to other students in my class and they said that they did okay and better than me but then I realized that everyone tests and learns at different paces so that made me feel a little bit better but I knew that I still have some work to do.

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Now let's actually talk about the test. 150 questions in 3 hours, 50 questions an hour and a little over a minute per question. Sounds like a piece of cake right? Not for me. I have a very short attention span and I feel like I get distracted over the smallest things and waste valuable time. When I was taking this exam, I felt like my mind was drifting so much. I would read the question but not actually read it because I was thinking about something else that was not relevant to the test. When I take another practice test in the future, I really need to work on my focus skills.

Another thing about the exam was the questions. Some of the questions that were asked were part of my sophomore year curriculum or things that I have never learned yet. It was very challenging for me to try to think on the spot about things I learned 3 years ago. I don’t even remember what I had for dinner two nights ago! Studying my old notes from anatomy and processes in TR will be essential in succeeding in the exam. The wording of the exam questions were something that I was not used to as well. Some of the questions I had to reread a couple times to fully understand the questions before I even looked at my choices. They were either too complicated or too broad and it was a lot wasted time rereading the questions instead of answering them.

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Practice makes perfect. The reasons for the practice exams are so that you can mess up and learn from the mistakes and grow on them. Failing is a part of life, I have failed my fair share of tests and quizzes throughout high school and college. They do not shape me for who I am. Yea it stinks, trust me, it is not a good feeling to fail, but it just means there is a lot more room for improvement. You can only go up! For the next practice test, I just have to erase as many distractions as I can, carefully read each question, and be confident in myself. and most importantly, NOT TO OVER THINK. Before each test in my AP GOV class in high school, my teacher made us say out loud " I AM GOOD ENOUGH. I AM SMART ENOUGH. AND GOSH DARN IT PEOPLE LIKE ME." It brought my stress level down by saying that and when I sit down for my real exam, I will most likely say something on the lines of that before answering the first question. But for now, I will be taking many practice exams, memorizing those models and revisiting anatomy terms.