Last week was the French test, today was the day we got our tests back. And you would not believe how nervous I was! It was on my mind all day and when she started handing tests back, my heart was racing.
The thing about the first test is that you always want to do well. If you get a bad grade in the middle of the semester it sucks, but as long as you’ve been doing well up to that point, you have all those other good grades to balance the scales. But when you bomb the first test of the semester, you start off on the wrong foot. It adds pressure, you spend the rest of the semester working hard to make up for that first test and it leaves the teacher thinking, “What the hell is this person doing in my class?”
My prof started handing out the tests. As she did, my heart raced faster and faster. Halfway through she stopped to tell us how the class did in general. The entire time I was thinking, “Great, keep passing these things out!”
One girl was visibly anxious and when the teacher walked over she took one look at her and said, “Relax, it’s just a test, it’s not like it’s a medical exam!”
So true!
The girl seemed to relax (of course, by that time she also had her test with her good grade in her hands) and I did too (relax, that is). In the long run, as long as I pass this class, if I get one bad grade, what does it really matter? Not much at all! This calmed me down and soon enough she slipped my test onto my desk.
Oh, and I got a good grade on my test! One down, four to go.
