We’ve all been there. The night before that big test that you have known about since syllabus week, you are fully aware you have no one to blame but yourself for not having studied in advance. You tell yourself, you can’t go back and change things now so just try your best. At least, that’s your attitude at nine at night. By ten o’clock, you decide that cramming just isn’t going to do. If you are like me, you decide it’s not worth your time to try to memorize all the information you should have been memorizing piece by piece. It’s that point in the night when you throw in the towel. You accept the low grade that you will inevitably get on the test and you go to sleep.
Scientifically, cramming really does not work so that’s how I always justify not even trying. Which is partly pathetic but also partly a demonstration of what not to do.
When you get to class the next day, completely unprepared for the test, you tell yourself this is the last time. Next time, I will study weeks in advanced. Next time, I’ll make flashcards and go to the professor’s office hours. Maybe we all need that one bad first test in the semester to kick our butt into motion. I had that awful first test in my hardest class. It definitely made me look at the bigger picture and realize the error in my ways. Up until that point, I was floating by in classes just doing okay while trying to juggle other clubs and my social life and my classes might have not been my priority. This one bad test showed me what should be front and center in my life: my classes.
I’m not proud of that test or how unmotivated I was up until that point but I needed that. The way I see that one bad test is like a bad sunburn. I’m a pale girl and every summer, my dad tells me to put sunblock on. I do for the most part but there’s always that one time I don’t and I end up looking like a lobster, a lobster that’s in a lot of pain. My dad would say, okay you got a sunburn- this will really teach you a lesson and now you really will not forget to put on sunblock. Weird tangent to go off on considering it’s currently October but stick with me here. After feeling the pain of that sunburn and dealing with the awful peeling and people constantly acknowledging my sunburn, I really learned to put sunblock on. Every time I was almost too lazy to apply it, I would get flashbacks to that awful sunburn I experienced. It’s kind of the same for this test. Every time it crosses my mind to not study and go on YouTube instead, I remember the awful feeling on cramming the night before. If I heard the teacher mention the test, I would remember how poorly prepared I felt the last time I took a test. This one bad test taught me a lesson. It will bring down my overall grade but it will motivate me to be better prepared next time. So if you are completely cramming or giving up on learning three weeks on information, it’s okay. I mean, its not, but you will learn a valuable lesson.
