Thursday, October 26, 2006

Birthday, G2, School, and Test Anxiety

So those are the predominantly exciting things going on for me right now. I turned 18 last Friday, so I'm now officially old enough to vote and I'm considered an "adult". Woohoo. I also got my G2 today (took me long enough,eh?). The test went off without a hitch, so all my anxiousness and crazy test anxiety was pretty pointless. School is pretty busy, I have a book review and a midterm early next week, 2 midterms the week after, and one in the following week.

My first midterm I got a 76% on... I wasn't perfectly happy with it, but considering the average in the class was 59 and the lowest mark was a 30 I wasn't going to lose sleep over it. I learned a lot about the style of this profs exams, and I'm sure my mark will go up next time. Interestingly enough, though, today in class he announced that he decided to up the average. He took out 6 questions, because most people go them wrong, and if you got them right they were treated like bonus marks. He announced the average was now 64, and this bumped my average up to an 82%. Sure! I'll take it for sure, but I think it's kind of cheap at the same time. It's not really encouraging people to do their work.

I have also discovered that I suffer from test anxiety. Or something. I think it has to do with fear of failure more than anything else, because let me tell you, exam time comes around and I turn into a total freak show. For about 30 minutes before my first midterm I was a mess. My stomach was in knots, my heart was pounding, it wasn't fun. Same thing happened before my G2 test. Any suggestions from anyone who's "been there, done that" on how to calm down? I'm not really sure why I get so hyped up, but like I said before, I think it has to do with a fear of failure... and I think it has to do with pride. But I don't really know. I may have to look into this some more before the rest of my midterms.

Anyways, sorry for the scatteredness of my thoughts tonight. I'm pretty tired and think I'm going to head off to bed. Thanks for reading! =)

2 comments:

*Becky* said...

hey! i was very happy when i saw you updated this. because, i just was. anyways.

you got your G2... that is awesome! im so happy, does it feel good? mm good times.

your midterm... congrats :) it must feel good to pull off your first university midterm. especially with that sweet deal with the bonus questions.

test anxiety... you know, i used to get this, but not so much anymore, well sometimes on random occasions, but not always. but, i do know the feeling because i used to get it bad. like, the before-a-piano-exam-or-kiwanis kinda feeling. i also got it before swimming lessons, go figure. but i dont really have any good suggestions, except for good old self-pep-talks.

well glad to hear from you. let me know when your craziness has at least somewhat subsided, we'll do coffee :)

Rachel Larmer said...

ummmm... I find that going early to class before the test and talking things through with other people helps, cause it just confirms in my mind that I actually know my stuff... or visa versa!