i'm bad test-taker

I am awful at testing. I can study all night or even all week (which I have done twice last semester btw) and the information will still fall out of my brain come test time. I really can't stand when teachers say that certain things will be on the test, and they're not. :/ Or when they give you a study guide and then there are questions on the test from things that you never went over in class, which happened today on my intro to theatre test. And it wasn't just me. I walked out with a few people and all of us were just like, "We never talked about any of that stuff on page 2, did we?" "Nope..."

It's seriously a big pet peeve of mine. You shouldn't screw around with your students like that, especially when it comes to college courses and it's a class like my intro to theatre class. For one thing, it's irrelevant to my major. Second, it's one of those throw away courses for an art credit. You think they'd be more lenient knowing most if not all the people in that class are only there because of the silly American education system requiring them to have these random credits they don't need. Pre-cal for elementary ed majors, I'm looking at you. And for the record, I have taken theatre classes all during high school and enjoyed them. The teacher for this one is just...nuts.

This was about testing ugh not my rant about the crappy set up here. Sigh. I like multiple choice tests, especially when teachers have fun with the answer choices. I once had a question on a sociology test which was, "What are feral children?" and one of the choices was, "The children of Will Ferrell" lmao I'm okay with short answer as well, because it gives me a little more freedom to say what I want to say and how I want to say it. Essay are awful tests. As good of an essay writer I am, those are just a bit too stressful for me and I feel that, since an essay is typically going to be about a concentrated subject, you focus more on that rather than the collective things you learned. It's less to study, but you're not gaining anything from it once you're done with it. idk that's just me, I don't expect others to feel the same on that.

Guys. Retaining information has nothing to do with how good you are at taking tests. The question isn't about if you're good at learning things, it's if you're good at taking tests. Test-taking is a skill completely outside of if you know the material.

That being said, I'm great at taking tests. I've never had an issue with them - I don't always score well obviously but the scores have been consistent with how well I do in class or better, which means tests work for me as a gauge of if I've learned the information. I'm especially good at essay tests, not sure why. Probably because my natural writing style is good according to my teachers so even if my information isn't 100% perfect the style makes up for it.

If I know its going to be hard I tend to study for about an hour and I end up doing pretty good, but if its a test that turned out to be harder than I thought then I'll probably fail it or get like a C.

As long as I know what the test is mainly about I'm good to go.

Give me a biology or physics test, with theory and some equations and I'll ace it. Anything else and I suck. Essay's could be a strong point, but after 400 words I drop the ball.

I think I do good on most tests because I study but math always gets me, I was surprised to see a good score on my math test today xD

Multiple Choice and Essays. I like it when there's already some clues on how I can ace my test.

I'm okay during tests, honestly. But multiple choice questions are always my favorite.

Yes, I'm kinda awesome at tests when I can be bothered to care about them. All throughout my academic life, I've done the absolute minimum to get the maximum results, and that most of my education has been test-based, as opposed to coursework or participation in class, has only spotlighted these abilities to the forefront. Throughout school, a 'good' marks was 80/90%+, and I put enough effort in to achieve those marks for the most part. When university came around, the standard dropped to 60-70%, and my work dropped to about that level. In law school, it dropped even further - to about 50% to pass - and in most of my exams I got about 55%! If I ever need to take exams again, I imagine I'll be able to get to the requisite standard to do well, but I kinda hope I don't need to. I like actually working instead, and have no intention to go back into further education.

I'm pretty good at test taking and most likely short answer is the best type of test that I have taken. It's been quite a while, so I might have forgotten. xD

Depends on what's on the test; if it's essay writing then I cruise on past; if it's trick-multiple-question I can have a tough time. If it's math or history, I'm terrible (though I can do homework and take-home assignments just fine.) *Shrug*

I'm terrible at taking tests unless it's one that's entirely written and made up of short answers or essays. With anything else, I either blank out, or I pick the wrong answer under the impression that it's right because I think "Well, it could be right because..." I have a problem taking multiple choice tests because I always feel like they're trick questions. I kick ass with essays, though.

But I haven't had a test since, like, October so things might have changed since then.