One small step for students, one giant leap for the school year! For us Escolarians, Halloween is not the scariest event in October. Examinations have always been a part of the realm of learning — taken four times every school year — yet they never fail to be a harrowing feat. 

Midterm examinations begin in less than a week yet they are already haunting everyone’s mind. Customarily, the hallways are filled with the cacophonous chatter of classmates arguing about which subject will be the most difficult or what type of tests will appear. Each night is gradually being spent on revising topics in lieu of resting, the temptation of sleep impeding our review sessions. This pre-examination cycle is a routine we know all too well, having been students for almost our whole lives.

Examinations are an assessment of not merely intelligence but also determination. Hard work reaps success. The camaraderie between classmates grows palpable in the exchange of notes. As students, we sacrifice our waking hours by flipping through endless pages of books in an attempt to engrave in our memory the lessons that have been discussed by our teachers in an effort to get the passing grades we aspire to achieve.

But the tribulation does not come to a halt at late-night review sessions, it only begins there. 

The climactic horror dawns on each one of us as soon we get a hold of the test papers. Reading each question with a pen in hand, we nervously rummage through our memory of the lessons that have been tackled in class. All the effort of recalling topics we have worked day and night for culminates in the very moment of answering the test itself, but what if? What if, after all that toil and effort, we do not get the scores we have worked for? What if, after all the sleepless nights and growing eyebags, we still fail?

The denouement of examinations is the release of results, where “grades don’t define me” becomes every student’s favorite motto. Like most tests, life permits no erasures. We cannot travel back in time to undo the mistakes we have made in answering the questions. Accepting our scores can be as difficult as a modified true or false test at times; the higher we set the standards for ourselves, the harder we fall when the results do not align with our expectations. 

Whether we fail or not, what scores we will get is out of our control. But what is under our control is what we are willing to do in the upcoming quarters where we will be given another chance to improve ourselves. Best of luck to all of us as we face the daunting midterm examinations this week!