Yes, you read that correctly.

I would much rather take a final where I am handed a blank sheet of paper and a prompt and asked to write as much as I know about this topic in an hour. Ever since I came to college the word "Scantron" gave me chills. Yeah, that white and blue sheet with bubbles all over it that you have to fill in every last bit of information for it to be graded correctly. Those sheets terrified me and I knew that it was something I would have to get over even though I thought bubble sheets would never be seen again after the SAT and ACT tests.

Growing up, my dad would ask me to watch a movie or read a book and then write about what I gained from it. I never enjoyed doing that more so because it meant that I had to follow the book or movie the ENTIRE time and I felt like I was being graded. Looking back at it now, I appreciate my dad doing this because I grew to become a stronger writer and I now pay closer attention to details when it comes to assignments similar to those.

Being passionate about writing and a journalism major has made me appreciate writing significantly more as compared to some of my friends who freak out when it comes to essay prompts. Sure, I could see why students prefer multiple choice since they can use a process of elimination, but wouldn't you rather write out everything you know about the book or topic you learned about in class over a month ago?

I was fortunate enough to only have one final exam this semester, but the worst part was that it was multiple choice. I dreaded the idea that all the questions and answers would sound the same and I would just bubble in random letters. Thankfully it did not come to that point. The other teacher for this course happens to make her tests short answer and as great as that sounds to me, she is known to have not much sympathy if you ended up writing something that was partially correct. I was never considered a great test taker, but that doesn't mean I can't apply myself to whatever is thrown in front of me.

Being a journalism major has brought me to enjoy editing friends papers as well as helping them understand how an essay should be formatted correctly. Yes, essay exams are more time consuming and that scares a lot of people away because they want to be done as fast a possible, but the more you write and have knowledge about the course the more information you can provide to your professor who is grading it.

Now yeah finals may be over but I still have another semester to go through and hope that my tests are formatted in an essay rather than bubbling a sheet for an hour of my time. Looking back I would not change a thing about the way I tackled my finals and other exams throughout my life I just know now that I prefer to write out my thoughts on a specific topic rather than just having to choose from a limited amount of answers pre-written out.