Metacognition: WHAP test

AP test. Countless people will talk about how stressed they were, how much they prepared and pulled long nights studying.

That’s not for me. I would never be able to make myself do that. Heck, I never even got one of those preparation books. And thus, the AP test was not stressful for me.

Now, I actually think this makes a lot of sense and isn’t actually just because I’m lazy.

For starters, let’s talk about the subject matter. It’s world history. How does one study for a three hour test on such a bloated subject? I didn’t. It’s simply impossible. I could imagine a person studying for hours on large topics such as the Crusades, the Renaissance or World War II. I don’t recall a single question regarding any of those on the test, and I remember noting this to myself. The probability that you could actually study adequately something that would actually be on the test is miniscule. So miniscule, in fact, that any benefit of not studying would easily outweigh the meager hope of useful studying.

And this is where stress comes in. In the last few days before the exam, I played computer games, went to sleep early and hung out with friends in AP Euro who had already taken their AP exam while an unfortunate amount of my fellow academites were stressing themselves out.

I sincerely believe my better mood and abundance of sleep in the days prior to the test was much more beneficial than anything I could have hoped to have gained by studying and cramming.

The only question is: how to convince oneself to not worry about it? I don’t know, I guess I was lucky; I imagine that it would be rather hard to change one’s mind regarding how much they care.