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Kinsey Blain

English 1101

Professor Arnold

16 September 2019

Test-Taking Anxiety

I was nervous, very nervous. I could feel my hands getting clammy. Test-taking has

never been a strong suit of mine. Whether it was in school or out in the real world. My mom

assured me, “ It will be okay, you’ll do fine. Stop worrying about it so much.” I tried to drill

those words in my head over and over again, but it didn’t work. I was still a nervous wreck. I

filled out all the necessary paperwork and sat waiting for my name to be called. My leg was

bouncing up and down. My mom's words suddenly went out the window and the only thing I

could think of was, “I’m going to fail…”

My self-esteem was low. I would always talk myself down so nobody expected much of

me. I knew I could pass if I wanted to, but nobody else knew that. If I kept telling people that I

was going to fail, they wouldn’t expect me to pass. If I kept telling people I was going to fail,

and I did, they wouldn’t be as disappointed in me.

Learning how to drive was rough for me. I never wanted to take the classes. I kept

pushing them off until I absolutely had to do it. I couldn’t sit in the same classroom for hours and

try to focus. My older sister always drove me places, so why would I want to take the classes and

get my license anyway?

Sitting in the classroom was boring. They only had a few posters in the room, and it

smelled really bad because the building was old. The driving teacher had a monotone voice that

could make you fall asleep in a matter of minutes. It took me a while to finish the twenty-four
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hours of classes because when I went once, I never wanted to go to the other classes. After the

classes and the in-cars, it was time to take my driving test.

Learning how to drive and then taking your driving test is a big milestone in a person's

life. It’s one of the first steps to independence. I had to take my driving test the day after

Thanksgiving. I could barely sleep at all the night before because I was too nervous. As I sat

waiting for my turn, my mind was filled with different scenarios that I knew would never

happen. “What if my car skids on ice and I fail?” I thought to myself. There was no ice on that

day, I was just working myself up. A hundred other unnecessary thoughts filled my mind.

It didn’t take long for them to call my name, considering it was 8:30 a.m on the day after

a holiday. The place was eerily quiet. The only sounds you could hear were footsteps and the

workers tapping away on their keyboards. “Oh no,” I thought to myself, “It’s too late to back

out.” I wasn’t a bad driver so I had no reason to be this worked up. I specifically chose the Xenia

BMV because it has one of the highest passing rates in the state.

The state officer that administered my test looked friendly enough. He immediately

noticed how nervous I was. He even tried to joke around with me, “It’s a little cold to be wearing

shorts in late November don’t you think?” Why would he be talking to me? I thought his job was

to just grade my driving. “I-I have a soccer game after this,” I stuttered. Then my driving test

began.

We went through the process of checking the brake lights and the turn signals. The state

officer had me drive through a small neighborhood. All I did was drive in a square. After what

felt like forever, we were back in the parking lot. It was time for maneuverability. “This is where

I fail,” I thought to myself. My foot, on the break, was shaking like a leaf and you could feel it

throughout the car. Eventually, the maneuverability part was finished and I didn’t hit any cones.
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“Congratulations, you passed,” the state officer told me. I couldn’t believe what I heard. I

really passed? Did I hear him right? I was so nervous about this and I passed. While my driving

test felt like it took forever, it was only 15 minutes. I pushed this off for 2 months and it only

took me 15 minutes to pass.

It was then that I realized I worked myself up way too much. From this experience, I

learned that overthinking a situation, whether in school or in life, will get a person nowhere. At

some point in, you will have to go out of your comfort zone. You have to get the courage to do

things or else you will never succeed. If you don’t go out of your comfort zone you will miss

major opportunities in life.

Since then, I have created a habit of trying to be more positive, even if I am

uncomfortable. I learned that pushing things off will make me feel worse and will stress me out

more. If I’m nervous about something, I now tell myself, ”It will be okay, stop worrying about

it.” These are like the words that my mom said to me before I took my driving test. The time and

energy I spent worrying and pushing this off could have been spent on something more positive.

Now, I try to go into things with a more positive attitude.