Tests

                This was my first week of tests here at Virginia tech, and if there is one thing I can say about it, it’s that it kicked my ass. Now I know everyone says that high school and college are two completely different animals, which I know is true,  but I still have to test the limits to see if some of the things I did in high school will also work here. Answer: No. I found out that studying the day of the test is not a good idea. I know common sense would say to study before, but when you have 10 other things to do, it gets hard.

                For example, I had my Chemistry test yesterday, and I when I finished it I had that I’m screwed feeling left inside of me. I kept putting it off, because when my professor explained how to do the problems in class it made a lot of sense, but when I finally got around to doing the online assignments, it was a different experience. So on Thursday I don’t have class till 2 pm which was my chemistry class, so I woke up at 8 am and literally studied from the time I woke up till it was time to go to class. I’m not going to say it was ineffective cramming because I was able to understand some things, but others just flew over my head. It was quite something going into class and seeing everyone’s anxious faces, it made me feel not as alone in my nervous state at the time. It was also at the time when I noticed how different college tests were from high school ones. When I was actually taking my chemistry test I found it interesting how the scantrons were different. There were no more question numbers with the choices A-E, now it’s question numbers with choice answers of numbers 1-10.

There is one thing about college tests that can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it, and it is that they are short. In high school tests would be 50-60 multiple questions that you had the whole period to do. But now, the tests are short so each question is worth more and the time to take it varies. Fewer questions are great because you aren’t doing a myriad of problems, but that means a person needs to make sure they know the material because the luxury of missing a few problems is gone. What can be annoying about the test process is that a person may have to go to a different place to take a test. I understand that some professors don’t have time in class for their students to take their tests, since they are trying to try a lot of material in 15 weeks. But that doesn’t mean I enjoy having to go out of my way to go to the math empo, or taking my free time on Thursday night to take a test. It’s something I’m going to have to get used to though, because this is only the beginning of my long college career of testing.