What Tests?

This is my first semester in college. I have been homeschooled all of my life, and I have never once been in a classroom with more than 10 students. School has always been interesting to me even though I did struggle through parts of it. I first was introduced to the classroom test setting by taking the SAT and ACT. When I was dropped off to take them, I felt completely relaxed.

Tests were a major part of my at home education, and being that I preferred to prepare for them, they never really intimidated me. That was until I had to take the Delta Assessment Tests.

Just the name freaked me out. I had found when I took the SAT and ACT the steady clicking of the clock had no effect on my nerves. When I went in for the Delta Assessment Tests, I was not concerned about anything, yet. When I first entered the lecture hall, I saw an ominous timepiece hanging at the front of the room. What I found, however, was that there was an additional clock hanging in the back of the room where I constantly felt it's face staring at the back of my head saying: "Tick. Tock. Hurry. Are you almost done? Tick. Tock. Your time is almost up. Better HURRY! Tick. Tock."

However, after sitting down, I really didn't pay much attention to the clocks, that is until I started the tests. The facilitator was a massive man whose booming voice shushed the room in a matter of milliseconds. When the explanation for the people who had probably never taken a test before was over, the clock at the front of the room was set to go off in 35 minutes. "No problem," I thought.

Opening my booklet, I quickly started calculating and carefully filling in the corresponding bubbles. Something was wrong, though. After only two equations, I couldn't think. "Focus," I told myself. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I think? That's when I realized the constant, never ceasing tick-tocking of the timepieces was driving me insane. As I struggled to finish, I kept thinking why a clock would bother me all of the sudden. Then it hit me. I only had a lengthy page of problems and only a short amount of time in which to do them, and the ticking pressured me to finish in the allotted time.

This story sounds quite a bit like our life here on earth. We all possess unique qualities and gifts, and God intends us to make the most of His time before He comes again. We have so much to do and so little time. We had better get busy. Really busy.

Jeremiah 48:10 "A curse on him who is lax in doing the LORD's work!