Test Taking and those "DOH!" Moments.......

Debbie_LPN · Jan 30, 2005

LOL been there!!! Our teachers said that when they would grade our tests, she could see that we've erased the right answer and put down the wrong one. She told us ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS go with your first instinct. And ya know, it worked!!!

Aneroo, LPN · Jan 30, 2005

I NEVER go back on my tests! I write my answer, or the one I am thinking is the answer, and that's it. Some of my classmates wear a rubber band to pop themselves with if they feel like changing an answer. Some students finish, then ask the teacher to take the test so they're not tempted to change answers. Some teachers have taken away erasers! -Andrea

allnurses Guide · Jan 30, 2005

Tweety - I've done that. I read the question, figure out the right answer and then when the test is corrected I see that I marked the wrong answer. Why do we do that???? We know the right answer . .does our hand have a mind of its own or something. So frustrating.

I never bought into the never change your answer . . I go back and look over my test and have changed answers. Sometimes I'm even right :chuckle

steph

not now, RN · Jan 30, 2005

My biggest mistake. Our second test in endocrine and I somehow managed to not fill in #11 on the scan tron. I filled in the answer for #12 in the #11 spot and kept going (25 question test). I never checked to see if my scan tron and the test where matching up number wise.

When we got out test back I my heart dropped becuase I basically missed every question from #11 on. When she went over the test I realized what I had done and explained it to her. She shifted all the answers down, made me take #11 as a wrong answer, turned out I only missed three on the entire test.

The girl that sat across from me said "I've never seen you go pale like that. You totally lost it."

NurseDreams · Jan 30, 2005

How about I just took a test. I knew one answer. I say to may self, the ansewr is false while I'm clicking on true, thinking all along I'm clicking on false. I get my results and I thinking "what the heck did I do????".
Also, how about those iffy questions. I had one answer and right before I submit, change it to the wrong answer at the last minute.
Sigh...gotta keep things in perspective. :rotfl:

I have done this too. I was looking right at the correct answer (an easy one too) and for some gosh forsaken reason I wrote down the wrong choice. Talk about a DOH moment. I think we all do this at one time or another. :uhoh3:

mauser · Jan 30, 2005

Hah! When I took Nutrition, I knew the answer was "Vitamin D" - I circled D on the test - never looked over that question again. If I had, I would have seen that Vitamin D answer was at C on the test.

Last week I took a test in Med/Surg on CVAs. My answer was a circle exactly between the B and C answer. I never rechecked the answer - because it was the last question and I "knew it!!" Did I forget to mention I just got bifocals and am still adjusting to them. Last semester, our instructor told us to cross off answers we know are wrong,circle words, etc so they would know what we were thinking if there was any question on our answers. I clearly crossed off the wrong answers. Obviously this semester they don't care what we were thinking.

My husband told me I should have rechecked my answers. Thanks, Dear. What would I do without him??

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Jan 30, 2005

Ah Tweety... our minds must be really tired when we do that.. let the hand take over and mark what it wants ... I've caught myself doing that a time or two..in the nick of time.

I won't go back and change an answer either. But I WILL mark and answer for "later review" before deciding on and submitting the answer. That way I'm not tempted to be mentally lazy and just submit without thinking it through, or to give the wrong answer altogether. There are usually only very few I have to do this with, but if I'm at a place in the exam where I'm beginning to get mentally fatigued, I know I'd better do that rather than to just continue submitting answers in this state.

I'll bet you did just fine, regardless ! :)

kellyo, LPN · Jan 30, 2005

I once forgot to TURN OVER the last page of a test. We usually had only 60 questions, but there were three more on the last page. I wound up getting 4 wrong (1 in the first 1-60, and then the last 4). I was sooooo mad at myself. Now I leave no stone unturned!!!

CardioTrans, BSN, RN · Jan 30, 2005

LOL, been there and done that. I find that I do it more at night after working all day and am trying to finish up something for class. Thats the only thing about online classes, you can do it at anytime, but you have the chance to miss somethings because you are tired.

Just know that you are not the only one that has done it! :chuckle

Catys_With_Me · Jan 31, 2005

My biggest mistake. Our second test in endocrine and I somehow managed to not fill in #11 on the scan tron. I filled in the answer for #12 in the #11 spot and kept going (25 question test). I never checked to see if my scan tron and the test where matching up number wise.
When we got out test back I my heart dropped becuase I basically missed every question from #11 on. When she went over the test I realized what I had done and explained it to her. She shifted all the answers down, made me take #11 as a wrong answer, turned out I only missed three on the entire test.
The girl that sat across from me said "I've never seen you go pale like that. You totally lost it."

Talk about a heartstopping moment... Mine happened when I woke up in stark terror the day after I took a big exam because I remembered that I hadn't put my name on my scantron... It got turned in with a million other scantrons at the college's exam center that day.

Luckily they were able to figure it all out and decided to cut me a break but in the days it took to get it all straight I was an emotional wreck (if I had received a zero for the exam I would have been out of the program). I'm OCD about it now, I must check and re-check about 20 times :chuckle

NurseFirst · Jan 31, 2005

I would wait until my instructor was done for the day (she had labs after lecture) to find out what my score was. One test I had gotten a HUGE number wrong. What !?!? (I had just done the lab practical and only missed 1). I started comparing the key and discovered I had mis-grided. I thought, fine, I can figure this out...but apparently I had mis-grided more than once. I said "Wait! Do you still have the tests? I always circle the answer on the test." Sure enough, we tracked down my test and graded it accordingly--I don't recall what the number was, but it was above the 90th percentile. My instructor said that is was fortunate I had waited, because the tests themselves would have been thrown out by the time we met next!

I find that I do better if I correct things I think were wrong. On multiple-guess tests, if I have the time -- and I usually do -- I always go through the questions at least twice...because I know that I rarely get thru multiple guess without misgriding at least 1 question. Doing this has made the difference between an A and a B on more than 1 occasion. As my current instructor says, do what works for you.

NurseFirst

My biggest mistake. Our second test in endocrine and I somehow managed to not fill in #11 on the scan tron. I filled in the answer for #12 in the #11 spot and kept going (25 question test). I never checked to see if my scan tron and the test where matching up number wise.
When we got out test back I my heart dropped becuase I basically missed every question from #11 on. When she went over the test I realized what I had done and explained it to her. She shifted all the answers down, made me take #11 as a wrong answer, turned out I only missed three on the entire test.
The girl that sat across from me said "I've never seen you go pale like that. You totally lost it."