The Many Faces of the Testing Center

So today I went and took a test in the testing center. Before i took it I thought i'd get a little studying in. So I sat in the hall right by where people come out after they are done with their tests. As i was sitting there...i didn't really get much studying done because i kept looking over at people as they looked up onto the screen that tells you how you did on your test.

This screen is both loved and hateed by every student at BYU. It's the screen that'll say "GOOD JOB" if you got an A, but it's also the screen that will display your 42% for all the world to see. I realized that you can tell a lot about how a person did just by the look on their face as they leave the testing center. So here are the many different faces i saw today:

First, we have the "ignorance is bliss" crowd. Those are the people who don't even glance up at the screen. After all of their studying (or lack of studying), they'd rather not see what they got on the test.

We also have the "everyone should know how good i did on this test" crowd. These are the ones who's facebook status's will probably change in the next few minutes to "so and so got an A on his/her test!" or "so and so is a genius". Mass texts are about to be sent to everyone they know. You can see as they stand there looking at their score that they feel like they are on top of the world, and would like everyone passing by to ask "how'd you do" just so they can yell out "I GOT AN A!!".

Then we have the "i wish i was a magician" people. These people stand in the hallway gazing at the screen as if they are thinking "if only i was harry potter and could change my test score with the flick of a wand from a 40 to a 95". Or maybe they are hoping if they stare long enough the screen will blow up into a million pieces.

We have the "i am a failure" category. This was probably the category I fell into most of last year haha. These people stare at the screen...trying not to look sad so that people don't know they failed, but secretly on the inside a few tears are falling. These people try not to make eye contact with anyone so that no one will ask how they did, BUT if anyone asked they would merely say..."eh i did alright" while knowing that they failed epically.

Then there's the category of "whew, thank goodness i didn't fail". These people glance up at the screen for approx. 2 seconds. They look up...see that there are no happy words by their score...but also see that they didn't fail...and walk out into the world no different than when they walked in.

Finally, we have the "I DID IT" category. These students went into their test KNOWING they would fail, but somehow came out with an A. These are the students that every other student who is not in this category hates. The look at the screen and their whole face lights up...these people know that miracles DO happen, and suddenly everything that was sad about their day is now wonderful. :)

So i know you're all wondering which of these i fell into after my test today. I would say i fell into the "whew, thank goodness i didn't fail" category....I ended up with a pretty good score for how much studying i did...which was not very much. So my day hasn't really changed because of my score. I'm okay with that.

My goal of this year is still to have happy words by my score. This has never happened...i got about 1% away from happy words on my Family Processes test the other day so it's coming soon. I feel it.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for today.

Love.