SAT. The most nerve-wracking test of my entire high school career, or so I thought. I vividly recall studying non-stop the night before the exam, but despite how hard I was working my brain, it did not come close to how poorly I performed on the exam. I thought this was my way to prove of all of the knowledge that I had retained, but I instead experienced a huge moment of disappointment. I believed that my whole future depended on this one day, but I turned out to learn the opposite.

I had this strong judgment of myself that I was going to earn a high score on the SAT, but that was not the case. It did not matter how much I studied; I was always expected to fail. The SAT is meant to trick students; it is purposefully not meant to be passed. For the longest time, I thought of myself as a failure because I did not earn the preferred score. It was until I realized that many other students were experiencing the same shock as I was. I learned that numerous other young teens taking the exam, who had an impressive academic record to their names, were also upset with their performance.

The SAT is simply a way to test the student’s ability to comprehend difficult wording problems which is what I was missing. I know that I am not the best at handling word problems. It does not mean that I am not intelligent, but it means that I need more time to comprehend the situation given to me. With the exam being timed, it is natural to rush over some problems and that is exactly what I did.

I am the type of person that prioritizes the problem before time management. There were times when I would get stuck on a word problem or question, doubting myself, and losing time. It led to the point where I had to guess on the ending questions. I do regret it; I should have managed my time better, but I also understand that many individuals, like me, need more time to get their brains flowing. At the time, I gave it my all and that is what I am ultimately proud of. That is the point of the exam: to work at your highest abilities and even though I did not receive my goal score, I managed to get through the test. After this experience, I acquired the knowledge of how to time my answers in a more efficient manner. I learned to not base my full potential off of one exam. It did not take away my credibility as one of the highly ranked people on my campus. It simply opened my eyes to focus on room for improvement.

The SAT does not determine one’s full potential. Everyone has days where they are not at their best, and other days where it may be the opposite case. There is always something new that one can take on in hopes to better perform on exams like these. It is definitely intimidating to think that this exam could possibly determine the next phase of your life: college. However, if I could, I would encourage everyone to retake the exam because there is always a different, maybe better approach to test out. Now that I have had time to reflect, I think of this exam as motivation to develop more efficient skills by the next time and I am very grateful for what it has pushed me to accomplish.