Midterm

I cringe when I think of my midterm. It was pretty bad. In fact, it was terrible before it even began. I was eating at Spikes when I began to question if my exam began at 12:40 or ended at 12:40. I realized at 12:19 that it began at 12:20 and ended at 12:40. Because I knew the exam could not be rescheduled, I began to freak out. I literally ran through Helmick Commons to make it to Clayton's office on time. Thankfully, I made it only one minute late. However, I become extremely anxious when I'm afraid I will be late, the anxiety of a verbal exam and running through campus made my nerves extremely heightened. I was so nervous I could barely string together a sentence in German. I'm not using this incident as an excuse for my poor midterm, but it is definitely how I was feeling and it surely affected the exam. I barely remember the exam, except from what I heard when I watched it again with class. I made several mistakes and my mind was racing. Sometimes I was too busy thinking about what I was going to say to listen to what Dr. Heggelheimer was saying. This made it extremely difficult to answer his questions accurately. I have a poor memory and he asked me multiply times about my trips to Germany. I had trouble remembering specifics and was so hyped up on my nerves I couldn't think of answer to give him. I am extremely disappointed in my midterm. I am a firm believer in doing the best you can do. It's about the learning experience more than the grade. This is why I am so disappointed. It was my fault that I was late and could not focus. It was definitely not my best work and not the sample I wanted to give Dr. Heggelheimer and Dr. Cadd. I also believe I did not begin to study early enough. I began to study only three or four days before the exam. I have learned from my mistakes and began studying about a week in advance. All this week I have been studying before class so I am in the mindset when I go to class and I have been writing down questions I have, exercises I want to go over and grammar concepts I want to practice. This way, I am maximizing the resources I have. I already feel more prepared for my exam on Monday and I still have the rest of the weekend to study. In a strange sort of way, I'm looking forward to my exam, to practice my German and to demonstrate to Dr. Cadd, Dr. Heggelheimer and to myself my German abilities and the progression I have made throughout the semester.