It's test time. You sit down, take a drink from your water bottle, and pop in a piece of gum. You get out three sheets of paper, get out your pencil, calculator, and eraser. The tests are passed out, and you begin.

Looking over the entire three-page test, you think, "Oh man, awesome, I know how to do almost all of this!" — which you should, since you spent the last two days studying your butt off.

Fifty minutes later, you turn in your test, every question answered, your name at the top. You feel good. You waltz out of the classroom feeling lighter than air. A huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders.

Now, it's a few days later. The teacher's handing the tests back, and you are anxiously awaiting yours so that you can see that big A at the top. A few stapled sheets are slapped onto your desk, and you excitedly turn it over.

C.

What the &%@#??

This happened to me today. Twice. I got two tests back today, both of which I had felt extremely good about after I had finished them, only to discover that I had not done well at all on either one.

This happens to me a lot, actually. I don't know why. I study. I have friends quiz me, and I seem to know the material well. I feel like I did well on the test, then it turns out to be the opposite.

I didn't think I was a bad test-taker. Maybe I am, but that's not what's bothering me.

What's bothering me is how I thought I did really well, but then I didn't.

Then, I had another test today. I studied harder than I have possibly ever studied before, because it was physics, and I am TERRIBLE at physics. I worked impossibly hard on all of the review problems, writing out the steps to solve each kind of problem.

So I sat down today seventh hour feeling really really good about taking that test. Then it was handed out, and I still felt pretty good. It looked like I could do all of the problems. Then, however, whatever I tried didn't work. Everything I thought I was supposed to do was apparently not what I was supposed to do. I didn't even kind of finish the test. I was so frazzled that I did not even remember to guess on the multiple choice that I hadn't figured out. I had a one-in-five chance of getting the right answer, and I didn't even take that opportunity.

Maybe now that means that I did really, really well on my physics test. Does the curse work the other way around?

Maybe the teachers made the tests really hard, or graded really tough. Maybe I have a skewed sense of reality. Or maybe someone just forgot to tell me it was opposite day.

Whatever the reason, today was not an awesome day. Plus, to top it all off, I just poured a large amount of water down my shirt as I was trying to take a drink. Great.

It doesn't matter. I hate tests.