“This is the Building I Failed a Political Science Midterm Exam.”

College is difficult. But college exams might just be the cherry on top of it all.

They require massive amounts of time, dedication and hard work. You spend hours upon hour studying… and for what?

To finally take the test and receive a bad grade in the end. It raises our anxiety and stress levels to the max.

But it doesn’t have to.

I’m not a bad student, just a poor test-taker. And I’m not the only one in this category either.

Nevertheless, any time I take an exam, I feel like I’m ready for it. But then I actaully take it and realize I wasn’t.

That’s okay. College exams don’t define who we are anyway. We do that ourselves.

I remind myself this every time I walk past the Psychology Building at the University of Illinois.

I’m Used to Failing College Exams

For the first three semesters of my college life, I majored in political science. I don’t know why I ever chose this route but I did.

And boy was it rough.

Out of the four classes I took, I failed each midterm. Completely bombed them.

I eventually scored letter grade or two better on their finals, but at the end of the day, I still failed those college exams. And one memory sticks with me now forever.

I took yet another political science midterm in the fall of sophomore year of college. I thought I had studied well enough for it, but come test time, I discovered I didn’t.

I stressed throughout the entire exam. I think I marked down random answers because I just didn’t know what the questions were asking me.

I wasn’t dumb at all; I just didn’t understand anything about the class. All of that spent in office hours didn’t pay off.

I failed the exam and thought it was the end of the world. Long story short, it wasn’t.

I soon realized maybe political science shouldn’t even be my major. I don’t know why it ever was in the first place.

That’s another story for another day, but I realized something else too. I should’ve thought it of long before then.

College exams don’t define who we are.

We Define Who We Are

Just like we shouldn’t let others ruin or tell us how to live our life, we shouldn’t let college exams rule our life either. They have no such power.

We all like to think they do but they don’t. It’s just a test. It’s not the end of the world.

Let me prove it to you.

After failing all of those midterm exams, including that political science one, I learned I’m not going to fail the class. I may have to work harder than most people, but I will eventually pass the class.

This has happened to me numerous times in the past in classes I was forced to take and never wanted to. Maybe that’s why I performed so poorly on those exams.

But the exams don’t define who we are.

We decide for ourselves who we are and who we want to be in life. How could a paper exam have that much power over us?

It’s just a test. We can come back from our failure on it and everything will work out in the end. I know from experience.

I’m not sure why, but I only remember where I was when I failed that political science exam. I was in the lecture hall of the Psychology Building at the University of Illinois.

Now, every time I walk by there, I remind myself that college exams aren’t the end of the world. I’m still alive and well when at the time I didn’t think I would be.

Everything turned out great in the end.

Closing Thoughts

If you think college exams define who you are and your college career, you’re wrong. They play a major role but they don’t decide the outcome.

Don’t let them take control over your life. You are the only one who should have any control over your life.

Nowadays, I’ve switched my major to journalism and I’m much happier. I didn’t let those horrible exams define me.

And neither should you.