Students take many tests throughout the year. I often wonder to myself why I feel so much pressure to do well and it is because I feel disappointed when I don’t do well. But why do I feel so much pressure in the first place?
Preparing for a test is very time consuming, oftentimes, stressful and overwhelming trying to figure out what material to study. Retaining the material I just reviewed is also a huge struggle of mine.
Internal pressure is the hardest because it comes from inside and at the end of the day you are your own worst enemy. Wanting to consistently do well is important, but at what cost. My family, friends, and teachers always support me, but the idea of letting myself down is the worst and that is where the most pressure is.
I have always been a bad test taker, I do well on assignments and classwork, but when it comes times to test you would never know. Tests have the most pressure for me because although I am not the best at them, they affect my grade the most so I overthink the affects my grade will have.
I often feel the pressure to get an A and do well. Most of the time I feel that if I fail I’m not only letting myself down, but my family as well. I think that if I do bad I won’t get into a good college and my life will be over. Deep down I know that it is not true, but on the surface I think that my future is defined by one test.
Preparing for big tests greatly impacted most in negative ways. Standardized tests are the worst. Every year since 3rd grade, students have taken some form of standardized test. I remember leading up to the EOG I would be so nervous and literally lose sleep over the tests.
Even in elementary and middle school when EOG’s never counted towards students’ grades, I still felt pressure to do well. I wanted to prove to others that I understood the material and was a good student who was successful.
When I got to high school and found out the EOC’s and exams were worth 20% of students’ final grades, my nerves became 20 times worse. I feared as if I would fail the entire course because of a bad exam grade.
Teacher-made exams were not much better. I would spend hours studying leading up to the tests and freak out when I forgot material from the beginning of the semester. While studying was helpful, it didn’t help the pressure because more than anything I didn’t want to let myself down.
The mental and emotional toll that tests have on students is not talked about enough. The amount of stress leading up to the test is unhealthy and does not positively impact the outcome. In fact the pressure is increased because you want everything you have done to be worth it.
More recently, the SAT and ACT have negatively impacted me. I have felt immense pressure to do well, because I convince myself that if I don’t I will be a failure and never go to college.
College is extremely competitive, especially if you want to go to a top school like UNC, and a good test score could be the difference between getting accepted or rejected.
I feel extreme pressure when taking these tests because I think my future is dependent on getting a good score and not doing so will ruin my future education and career and the life I have envisioned will not be possible.
The new exam exemption policy was something I was happy about because I am someone who doesn’t test well, but performs well in class. Exams have previously hurt my final grade and ultimately affected my GPA negatively.
In the past the end of the semester was the most stressful, but this year for the first time I had way less stress knowing that my success of the semester was not defined by one test.
The term “grades don’t define you” is something that I try to constantly remind myself of because it is ok to make mistakes and not be perfect.
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