If you’ve ever met someone who gets really excited when a teacher assigns a test, or when the IB exams are right around the corner, please come talk to me, I’d love to get some more inspiration in life. Seriously, we don’t like to take tests, just as much as those who test us are scared to grade them because they might find some really freaky, or sad answers. Why not quit having tests? Well, as some of us read the novel Disgrace, in our senior year, I’ve come to a better understanding of the necessity to go through testing in life.

The protagonist in the novel goes through “days of testing” as he calls it, where he must embrace disgrace and humiliation in order to realize he must change somehow. Considering that it’s very difficult for us as individuals to recognize our own flaws and change, we must have someone or something else that makes us more aware. Taking a physics test, for example, that you’ve barely studied for because it’s just so complicated and theoretical (not that any of us have ever done that) will make you want to pull your hair out, cry hysterically in front of your peers, and even punch a wall. But it also makes you realize, “Boy, I really should’ve studied more—next time I’ll focus and get my grades up!” (not that all of us have that epiphany either).Testing is embracing boredom, fear, harshness, and many times, failure, so that we can pursue better things in our lives.

It’d be great if your teacher came up to you one day and said, “Let me test you on a subject of your choice!” (like the app, Quiz Up!).We’d literally have a world of opportunities to choose from, and we’d certainly pick things we know we could excel in without having to study. If my math teacher asked me to take a quiz on Candy Crush, I’d be so happy! I’d love testing. But then again, we’re never really tested on the things we love. Why? I choose to believe that we have to go through the stress of taking tests so that we can look forward to doing things that we really enjoy afterwards. Every time I’m really worried about a test, I simply focus on the things that I really need to study, and I also think ahead to the next day, when I won’t have another test like that one. We all strongly dislike taking tests on Fridays, but then again, we can just look forward to the next day, when we won’t even have school.

We’re constantly being tested so that we show our potential, our acquired knowledge, and our effort, but we’re also tested for ourselves. We benefit individually from being tested and stressed out of our minds. We push our boundaries, our comfort zones, we learn to identify ways in which we can improve. So, whenever you feel worthless or brain dead from studying so much and having so many tests and quizzes, just think to yourself, “Hey! It could’ve been much worse…”