Have you ever reached the halfway point of a two hour test that will count for 20% of your entire grade in that class and already known that when it gets graded its going to be one of those papers you shove into the bottom of your backpack and never look at again until your cleaning your things out for next term? This is what some call the "seeing is believing" quick-response tactic of dealing with bad test grades. The theory goes that if you don't have any visual proof of the bad grade (i.e it's stuck out of sight somewhere) it may never see daylight again. Then you can keep on believing there is a sliver of a chance that you didn't get it. Unfortunately, the grade book usually doesn't care enough about your fragile mental state to employ the same technique, so you can only ignore it for so long. And if you're going to have to accept the truth, cringe-worthy as it may be, then you might as well do away with the preliminary attempts to make it disappear and deal with the fact right away. The following 5 pieces of advice serve to make that ripping off of the band-aid more manageable, and hopefully prepare you mentally for any future mistakes made in life beyond the school sphere.
1. Immediately after stepping foot out of the classroom, give an audible whoop celebrating the fact that it's over! Whatever happens will happen, but it's out of your control, and nothing you do is going to change that. The real accomplishment is that you got through the ordeal, no matter how many questions were answered with a question of your own. Be happy. Be proud. And shake off the stress with a shout.
2. Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that this one test does not define you. Even if you've had a string of bad tests, you as a person are more than the sum of your grades, and every event that has any real significance in your life anyway is not going to depend on those numbers one bit.
3. Make yourself follow the thought string of "What's the worst that can happen?" all the way through. And by 'all the way through' I mean at every point in the scenario delve deeper by asking "whats the worst that can happen?" Let me demonstrate using a real-life example of a student who just took a really hard ecology test that will count for 30% of their grade and has absolutely nothing to do with recent events in my own life: You walk out having left a good portion of graphs unlabeled, answers unexplained, and can't imagine how to come back from this. You stop dragging your feet for a moment on your walk of shame back to the dorm to ask yourself "But whats the worst that could happen if I do badly on this test?" and the tiny corner of your brain that's somehow managed to stay rational throughout this ordeal responds, "You'll get a bad grade in the class." Okay, but whats so bad about that? Maybe it will hurt your GPA for the next few years. Whats so bad about that? You can make sure to do your best in all your other classes. What if you don't? Then you'll still be able to get a job because, if you recall, you are more than the sum of your grades. But what if you don't get as good of a job as you wanted?
If you've reached this question and still don't feel the need to panic, congratulations. The answer to to this last question is called life, and its the unexpected cruddy situations each and every single person on the planet has to deal with at some point in their lives. If this is the worst that can happen, then relax: your problems are perfectly proportional and you're on track to an exciting future where anything is possible.
4. This one might be cliche, but as cliches go, its probably the one that has most retained its integrity despite its over-usage. It goes like this: 'It's all about the learning.' Its hard to believe right now, but all that will matter when you make your final exit from the classroom and enter reality is that all the stuff you crammed into your head has opened your perspectives and taught you how to adapt to different situations. Unless your using a particular skill set in work, then most of life is just figuring it out as you go, and learning how to learn well is undoubtedly the key to doing that. So next time you whisper to yourself 'its all about the learning anyway' as you're circling what you just know is the wrong multiple choice answer, know also that on this note, you are entirely spot on, and it doesn't have to be just an excuse anymore.
5. Finally, remember to not berate yourself for doing poorly. Pity parties, banging heads on hard surfaces, and irate rants complimented by pulling out tufts of your own hair, or any combination of such responses to a bad test, should be avoided at all costs. They're not going to change anything, and the more you tell yourself you're an incompetent ninny without a future, the more you'll start believing it, until one day you find you've become your own biggest obstacle to success. Which will in turn lead to more pity parties and hair pulling; its a vicious cycle, friends, and all you'll get out of it is exponentially lower self-confidence and an unfortunate case of premature baldness.
No matter how badly you think you did/actually did, life will go on, so its important to keep on loving yourself and meeting the struggles head-on; if not for your mental stability, then at least for the prevention of hair loss. Then, even if you do end up at a sad barely-minimum-wage job you never thought would be a part of your life, you'll at least be able to comfort yourself with great hair days.
