Testing, Testing!

As I was monitoring one of my students during a state exam, he commented, “This is so boring!” Really? With a variety of interesting stories and articles to read and a chance to shine, how could the test be boring? What I think he really meant is that the test, the writings, weren’t stimulating him. I think he also meant that he was having trouble sitting so still in such a quiet room with no distractions. It is due to this “boringness” that he is likely to fail his exam, not because of his inability or lack of knowledge or skills.

Nothing that this student could have done a week before testing could have cured this boredom, just as someone who plans to run a marathon cannot ready himself for the endurance in a week. He needed to be working on the issue for months prior to the event. Strength is built up over time. From the beginning, or at least months prior to the state exams, every day in every class, my student should have been pushing himself, forcing himself, to do just a little bit more when he wanted to give up. It’s the little bit extra that we practice every day that makes a huge difference in the end.

Today my student sat very unhappy with his test in front of him. I can only imagine what he was thinking, the complaining he was doing in his head and the angst he was feeling as the test was before him—that test that would determine if he is promoted to high school or not. If only he had been a mental athlete, not a mental sideliner.

Signed,
Lora the Study Coach