Remember: every question counts

[daniellevine]

I just wanted to share with everyone my experience today. I took World Populations from Excelsior. Coming into the exam I was 118 credits, a 3.79 GPA, and hadn't really come close to getting under an A on any exam. I'm not trying to brag here, but I will be making a point soon.

I had been preparing for this test pretty intensely. Mainly, I wanted to get a 4.0 Excelsior GPA and this was my only Excelsior class. This is important to me to avoid confusion when my transcript is sent. I definitely did not want a GPA .8 points lower from Excelsior than from the overall total, and getting a B would result in that. With all the hard work I put in, I was stressing all week about not finishing strong and therefore leaving a black mark on my transcript (in my opinion.) It's fair to say that this exam has been in the back of my mind for the last few months, knowing that's it's $240 and probably won't be retaken (because I want to graduate.)

So, I felt very prepared for the exam but I felt like there were some curveballs. A lot of information was on there that threw me off. Usually I can logically deduce the answer, but I still found myself at "50-50" guesses throughout. I think Excelsior may have changed the exam based on the information I studied.

I have never taken more than an hour to complete a test. I spent almost two and half hours on this one. I double, and even tripled checked every answer. I was literally closing my eyes and pressing my hands against my head. I ended up making 5-6 changes every time I went through, and each time I think I saw the questions a little clearer.

I received my grade immediately and my heart raced. I got an A. I was supremely happy to be finished my degree with the exact transcript that I've been working towards.

Tonight I got home, curious to see the breakdown of my score. I used the Excelsior breakdown here.

https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_Coll...k_2008.pdf

I entered into Excel all of the percentages based on categories to figure out exactly what I scored on the exam, converted them into the number correct, and then divided it by the total questions to get my actual percentage.

The A tier for this exam was 79%. I ended up with a 78.8, which they rounded up. Had I gotten ONE more question incorrect, I would have received a 78.0; that's a B, and a really bad taste in my mouth. Out of 130 questions, I got 103 correct. 102 would not have been enough.

Anyway, my point is that you just never know how close or far away you are from your goals. I have taken almost 20 exams in the last three months, and on most of them I did much better than I thought. I was tempted after the first go-around just to say "heck, I'm sure my score is an A" and moved on. Turned out, I would have regretted it. I definitely would not have achieved my goal. A lot of times a question will seem too hard to understand, but if you keep coming back to it, it may become clearer. So, take it from me, never assume anything on a test, and always make sure you've put forth your best effort: sometimes part of taking a test is not only your preparation and exam-taking abilities, but also your ability to keep your focus and grind out every last point.