Tests, tests, and more tests

In a normal week, I can expect to have about 2 tests and maybe 2 quizzes as well. Not bad, eh? It's those less-than-normal weeks that I dread. Those ones where it seems as if the teachers planned to have all their tests on the same day. Yeah, those are horrible. However, the frequency of tests is not what I am here to discuss. It's the fact that every time I take a test, I always feel the opposite of how I did.

For example, last week, we took a practice AP U.S. History Examination. It was 80 questions in 55 minutes. Let me first state that we found out we would be having this test the day before. So you can imagine I was already a bit rattled. The test comes and being pressed for time, I do my best to quickly go through the questions. As I finish with only a minute or two to spare, I think to myself, that wasn't so bad. Boy was I wrong. For as confident as I felt about the test, I was expecting maybe 50/80. That would have been great! But no, my test is returned to me, I notice a lot of check marks that represent questions missed, and my score reads 28/80. Yep, that's an F- if I've ever seen one.

Another example from the opposite end of the spectrum, I took a math test a couple weeks ago and I felt horrible about it. I check online later that night and low and behold, I got a 37/40. For me, I thought that was pretty great. But as I said, I felt horrible about it and I ended up doing pretty well.

This is frustrating to me, because honestly, this happens on EVERY test. I either feel great or horrible, and it always comes out to be the opposite. You can imagine why this would be frustrating, because if you feel great about it, you can predict the outcome.

Here lies the problem. I just took my actual AP U.S. History Examination and I feel pretty good about it. But what I hope is that this is a different type of good. I wrote the Document Based Question essay as sophisticated as I could and I thought it was pretty good. I did the same for the other essays and when it came to the multiple choice section, there were quite a few repeats from the practice exam, so I felt pretty alright about it.

I truly hope this is a different kind of good feeling, because I could really use a three or better on the AP test. Unfortunately, I must wait until mid-July to get my score...