Being a student has its ups and downs. Through all of those years of schooling, so many things change. Friends come and go, you play twenty different sports, take a million classes, and somewhere along the line you figure out what it is you want to do with your life. And yet, through all of this change, there is one trusty little friend that sticks with you through the whole journey: tests.
Every student knows the unfortunate feeling of what it’s like taking a test. The studying, the all-nighters, and worst of all, the stress. Collectively as a student population I think that we can all agree that test-taking is not in our top ten favorite things to do. Having hundreds of scantrons and test packets come across our desks, we have become accustomed to the various stages of test-taking, and the emotions that accompany them.
I wish I could explain how I feel while I stumble through the stages of test taking, but I know a few people who can put it a little better than myself. Here are the 14 stages of test-taking, from the cast of F.R.I.E.N.D.S:
1. Finding out there is a test this week, when you had no idea
2. Trying to understand what is actually on the test
3. Finding the Quizlet for the test, which your teacher explicitly said didn’t exist
4. Having people tell you, “Oh, you did well on the last test, you don’t have to worry!”
5. Remembering the test is at 8am tomorrow morning, and knowing that your brain doesn’t function that early
6. Sitting in your classroom waiting for the test to start
7. Opening to the first question, and having literally no idea what the answer is
8. Finishing the test, and freaking out about how it went
9. Finally realizing that the test is out of your control now...
10. … and then hearing the following day that the test grades have been posted
11. Finding out that somehow, some way, you and all of you friends passed
12. Getting mad at that one person who needs to rub it in that they got an "A"
13. Celebrating the fact that you haven’t failed!
