Throwback Thursday: Tell us about test taking memories #TBT

[#1]

It's Thursday!

I came across this test result paper I got 10,456 days ago (or 28 years, 7 months, and 15 days ago). This is the first time (and I think only time) in my LIFE that I've gotten 100% on an exam!

Soooo, tell us about test taking memories - hopefully fun and enjoyable ones  :)  At least I hope I am not waking up bad memories...

Let’s make it a great Thursday!

KGM

[Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_]

It is the most stressful time of my life. I hate taking tests, to be honest. I tend to start forgetting what I have spent all my time studying.

[Dan Breyen]

Oh, the fun tests are those that you take online and when the results come in, it only tells you if you 'PASSED' or 'FAILED'.  I would really want to know by how much I passed it, or how close I was to passing if I Failed.  Then, if you did fail, you can't review the questions you got wrong, you just have to wait a day and then take the whole thing all over again.

[Gabriela Koleva]

Hahaha this reminds me of my driving license theory and practice exams from last year.

In my theory test I scored the exact amount of maximum allowed mistakes for all 3 categories, making me pass the exam in one go when I had just barely started passing my mock-exams at home which made me nervous.

During my practice exam (I had already passed my pre-exam so luckily for this one I only had to drive so no special maneuvers but), my instructor barely spoke English (as I did this in the Netherlands and I somewhat understand bare minimum of Dutch but that's it) and he got me through a 3 lane roundabout, a roundabout with an exception, through one of the worst getting off the highway road that splits into 3 to 5 lanes, and then each pair of left and right turn and split into 4 lanes and he made me drive inside a nearby city (where I have never been before!). Basically every single place he could think of where he could screw me over, he made me drive through there. At the start, I was so nervous, I sped up to 60km/h in a 50km/h zone. Noticed quickly, laughed out nervously with a stupid joke that I was too trigger happy with the gas pedal because of my nerves which he rewarded with a chuckle and I did get a compliment on the highway that he murmured under his breath. When I parked, I was certain I failed. Looked at my instructor and the examiner invites us inside the building to discuss my results. I was like "I botched this. I failed. No way am I passing this, will need a few more lessons now." etc etc did my brain spiraled down. Then the examiner looked at me and he said "Well, gefeliciteerd". I stared at him with a stunned blank expression of... what?! Then he repeated in English "congratulations". Both me and my driving instructor looked at each in disbelief like "I didn't mishear, right? He did say I passed.. right?" It was one of the most happy moments in my life. Both the theory and the practice exams in one go (well counting the optional pre-exam which i also passed in one go)... Unbelievable. 

[Chris K]

Hi @Kristján Geir Mathiesen

Awesome topic and congrats about those amazing results! ;)

When I think about test results and tests in general, there come two memories to my mind:

Bad memory:

We were taking a math test during our fifth-grade class. As the teacher initiated a countdown, she announced, "Alright, children, write your final word and set your pencils down." Following her instruction, she commenced collecting the completed tests, starting from the back rows. Seated in the front row, I seized the opportunity to squeeze in one last equation within this brief timeframe. Regrettably, my math teacher caught sight of my attempt, promptly confiscated my test, and tore it in half. This incident stands out as the most traumatizing examination experience of my life, though perhaps it was somewhat justified 😅📄

Good memory:

This year, I successfully completed my Master of Science in IT Management—a significant accomplishment alongside my professional commitments. I managed to submit my thesis just moments before the deadline, only to realize a few days later that the deadline was actually 24 hours later than I had initially believed... :D Despite this amusing revelation, my overwhelming emotions were that of relief and joy. The celebration with my fellow students, particularly with my best man who also completed his studies, was truly fantastic! 👨🏻‍🎓🥳

[Rae Foote]

This is a fun one!

We had "privacy folders" at my middle school. My friend and I finished our tests early and obviously we weren't allowed to talk, so I wrote "are you going to [other student]'s birthday party this weekend?" on my privacy folder. She wrote back "yes" on hers and then BOOM! Suddenly teacher is behind us, grabbing our tests, and accusing us of cheating.

We had to read our "notes" on the folders in front of the whole class to prove our innocence and it led to a dramatic class as APPARENTLY not everyone had been invited to this birthday party and that was now a very publicized thing. 

Other than that, I was always the student who said "thank you!" when a teacher handed me a test...even though I was always less than grateful to be receiving it haha 

[Bill Sheboy]

This is an interesting, thinking back topic...

During my time at a college-prep school, we were required to take the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SATs) repeatedly until we got the maximum scores or time ran out before college started.  And so I took them every six weeks for most of the year.  (I never got the max on the language part.)

[Laurie Sciutti]

Nice one, @Kristján Geir Mathiesen ! 💯 is definitely something to be very proud of!

Like @Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_ , test-taking for me is the ultimate stress-inducer.  Even if I think I'm an expert on a topic, my brain decides to activate the "Amnesia Protocol".  It sucks.   And as luck would have it, I'm FINALLY studying to get some Atlassian certifications.  I've been putting them off for YEARS.  So while I don't have fond test-taking memories, I do have plenty of horrible ones.  😣

[Amanda Barber]

My most recent memorable test experience is certainly the ACP-620 exam I did at home. I can't say I've ever had to show under my table and every corner of my room on camera before for a test! 🤪 I was always a pretty good test taker since I'm good at ruling out incorrect answers, but the nerves always get me!

[Carlos]

Low key, thinking about tests like this again gives me anxiety. 🤣 I was never the best at school, or at least not when it came to exams. But it is interesting looking back after almost ten years since I graduated college and took my last one. Sadly, I don't think I ever got a 100 in college. 😅 

[Robert Wen_Cprime_]

Wow, this and having @Ree Kent and @Joanna Thurmann on The Jira Life today brings back memories of my first Atlassian certification exam experience.

I was working with my co-workers to study for the ACP-600 exam that just came out.  I had done verification exams before for other tools and wasn't sure how it would turn out.

The day comes and I head over to the testing center.  I walk up and find....

The testing center had been evicted by their landlord.  The door was locked!

Needless to say, I got to reschedule ad passed!

[Andy Gladstone]

Well, @Kristján Geir Mathiesen the last three tests I have taken were all part of the Bite Sized Learning Kudos program!

JQL 

Confluence Cloud Shortcuts 

Jira Software Essentials 

And all were good memories!

Other than these, the test(s) I am constantly trying to pass are the ones of my patience, every day!

[Jimmy Seddon]

Great topic @Kristján Geir Mathiesen!

I have had plenty of great test taking experiences and outcomes.  But, one particular "Bad" one that stands out is the only time I failed an exam (yes I said exam).

In College, one of the final exams I had was a practical database exam.  Going into it, the entire class thought this was going to be great because we were able to use our laptops (I was in a weird experimental program) to actually complete the exam.  At the end we were to had in a USB stick with our name on it to the professor at the front of the room.

As I started the exam, I was struggling to get things working in the first question.  Not wanting to waste too much time on any given question, I moved onto the next one, and I immediately discovered that the entire exam built upon itself.  There were only 10 parts.  But if you couldn't get the previous part to work, everything beyond that wouldn't be correct.

I felt this was a very unfair exam as not understanding a single concept was all it took to void anything else you might actually know.  I made it to part 3 before time was up and I knew I didn't do well.  I have never been forced to do a practical exam like that since and I'm very grateful for it.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

My first semester at university, I took a class in Golf to give me a break from the math and science courses I was taking. The final exam actually included a fill-in-the-blank section. 

To this day (41 years later), I remember the question that ruined 4.0 for the semester:

"A small accumulation of water not considered a hazard is called ________."

I put "a puddle." I was not aware that I needed to review the glossary of the reading materials. Had I done so, maybe I would have been familiar with the term "casual water." I know I've never forgotten it since. I also have not played golf since I was in college.

[Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_]

I would say the worst would be going for written exams. I have very sweaty hands, and I would be wet by halfway through the entire exam paper. Eventually, I would need to use my handkerchief to start wiping the place up.

[Joanna Thurmann]

@Kristján Geir Mathiesen I know I'm late to the party but my worst test-taking experience was in freshman college in Physics. I studied so hard alone and in groups, read the book, reviewed notes, used flashcards, etc. On the actual day, I just froze.... nothing came to mind. Nothing made sense. Everyone was busy with their heads down and my brain was blank. I ended up getting a D on the test. Afterward, I changed my major from engineering to computer science :-)