The Paradox of Test Taking



Story of my life....

 
 Just took a 7 week microbiology class. As I told Emily and her friends last night...Id rather strip naked and sit on an open fire before doing that again. It was brutal. Basically it was a semester length class crammed into seven long and hellish weeks. A class that I would normally love made me hate the microscopic prokaryotes. The class would cover three chapters a week, with homework assignments, a lecture quiz, two labs, lab finals every other weeks, and more “choose all that apply” questions that made me want to just drink the vial of Staphylococcus aureus just to end it all. All in all though. I learned something intriguing about tests.



   As previously noted this class had tests every week. Things would get real stressful. Especially for the finals. At that break neck pace if you fell behind you were doomed to get a myonecrotic infection from falling behind so much. (see picture) Taking this many tests I learned the irony of actual test taking. I would rack my brain and cause myself a butt load of ridiculous stress. And all for what? For my micro final I put in over 8 hours to study for one test. I printed homework question, test questions, highlighted all my notes 6 times over, read the book, wrote my own essay questions, answered those essay questions, and even made like 50 index cards with various microbes and the diseases they cause. Then I took the test and it lasted 34 minutes. 60 multiple choice, and 4 essays. And it all was over. Just like that.

Myonecrotic infection, caused my alpha toxins and Co2 being released from necrotic tissue not a local infection, caused by  Clostridium perfringens....WASH YOUR WOUNDS!

   Don’t get me wrong I am SO glad its over. I just feel kind of empty. Sure I got a good grade on the test and what not, but all of that work! All those crying tree families for the paper I used. All the stress and negative emotions I put on myself and projected to my fiancée. All the speculation and worrying about “what will be on the test?” For 34 minutes of my life. It kind of seems like a paradox to me.

   (Good) College students put so much effort into our classes. So much stress, and worrying, and damn speculation about what we will need to know. (Most of the times it’s completely opposite from what we study for) And then BOOM. 34 minutes later its over. Its like a drug. We are so stimulated and intense and then all of the sudden it’s gone. Cocaine is a huge stimulation followed by a huge crash... I wonder if we have a dopamanergic response to tests….future research! (Neuro friends…ideas… thoughts!?!?!)

   I guess what I am getting at is I wish there was another way to assess what I know. You ask me about any strain of common bacteria and I can tell you all about it. But my professor generates a multiple test based on what he thinks I should know. Wouldn’t higher education be more effective if we had oral and written tests? I know I would feel more intellectually verified if I could just converse with my professors about what I know. Instead of: “Which of the following causes Impetigo in children?” Why not: “Tell me what you know about impetigo and what causes it?” One just seems a little more fulfilling to me.

   Unfortunately this isn’t going to end for me. I take the MCAT text summer…and the stress and worrying has already begun. Not to mention my medical boards. Booyeah!

 

For all my new micro friends!

 

 

P.S. Random but sincere. Give yourself 400 blog points!
P.P.S: do you agree? Do you love tests? What would you change?