Anatomy of an Exam

We’ve all had those moments in life where we have been faced with the extreme pressure and daunting task of taking a major test. Tests are a part of life from the very beginning of our early preschool years. Our teachers have been giving us tests from the simple things like social skills to the abc’s to the more difficult tasks of higher critical thinking skills. They are simply unavoidable and probably going to be around for the rest of our lives as well. So how do we deal with the tests, the struggle, the stress, the aggravation of sitting down and approaching with any shred of confidence the very goliath before our eyes? Run!

Alright so maybe running is too strong a word and when first used it looks like I am saying to run away from the test, run from the problem. But no in truth we cannot run from the tests in school or the tests in life. All of these exams before us are placed there for an important reason, to examine our knowledge and increase our wisdom. So the first thing to do is stop being afraid of the tests in our lives, even the ones which could easily trample us underfoot. We should run into the battle, across the enemy lines and into the territory of possibly the unknown. Because the battle is where we learn and grow.

Today I approached another big test of my life, a real hurdle separating me from my life goal of becoming a teacher. Now while I will not know the results for another few weeks I thought it would be good to just get some of the destressing accomplished now. Because this particular test was taken once already in May of last year and not passed by a mere five points. So that was rather disappointing, as well as it would be even more so if today’s exam did not go well either. Time will tell. And time is something else to learn from.

In life exams take time to accomplish. Today’s particular test was a four hour exam which included multiple choice options and written portions. They were simple enough questions all regarding my knowledge of teaching and appropriate practices in the classroom. I am not sure I agree that this simple test really says I am able to be a teacher, I leave that to the Lord really and the strong desire I have to meet the goal itself. When I reached the written essay portion I froze in a panic at first because it occurred to me that this is extremely difficult to write without having proper time and maybe a good spell check along with me. But in the real world and life our tests often have to be even quicker, leaving us very little time to have the best answers when faced with difficult moments. Preparation is everything.

Preparing for the unknown is difficult. Even with study guides and booklets on the subjects being studied it can still be scary once approaching the test. I read many books on marriage before getting married and again books on parenting before having kids, but none of them really made me the perfect husband or father. Neither do passing some state required tests make me an excellent teacher. I will be an excellent teacher because that is what God has called me to be. But it is going to take time and I will be learning from the experiences I have going forward. What astounds me the most about test taking is how completely stressful it is and how much can be learned more from our reactions to the test then the actual tests themselves.