I'm a little old for test anxiety but that is exactly what I am experiencing with this online course I am taking for boating certification. Each time I finish studying an individual chapter and I prepare to take the chapter-quiz (which you are required to do or the course will not let you advance to the next chapter), I get these little butterflies in my abdomen and I think to myself, "Oh, get over this!" , which does absolutely no good.
There are something like fifteen chapters so I have a ways to go. I really should do three or four chapters per day because I fear that, at my current pace of one chapter-per-day, I'll have forgotten all of the information, from the beginning chapters, when I take the final exam.
As with most educators who have had to (or currently have to) compose their own exams for courses, I am quick to criticize poorly worded test questions or ineffectively organized study materials. This, of course, indicates a high level of hubris, a self-charge to which I readily admit to being guilty of. In my own defense, however, allow me to explain.
Every chapter, regardless of how long the study section is, has a ten-question quiz at its conclusion. There is a minimum-passing requirement of seventy-percent in order to be able to view the contents of the next chapter. In the last chapter quiz, one question was exceptionally poorly worded and I got the question wrong. Before I realized which question I missed, I contacted the concern that administers the course and course exam. This was after I'd hit the back button dozens of times, looking for some way to discover which question I'd missed that gave me only a ninety-percent grade. (I know, I know.) The answer came back that the state I was attempting certification for does not allow that information to be released to the course-taker. Go figure that one!
I am now mentally preparing to study the next chapter. I have physically prepared for my test anxiety by buying a bottle of ready-to-serve margarita mix. As soon as I've taken the chapter quiz, I'll have the perfect nerve-settling, butterfly-banishing potion. Perhaps this will turn out to be so calming that I'll feel inspired to complete four or five chapters per day!
It must be four o'clock somewhere!
Ancora imparo
