I was scheduled to take my second statistics exam yesterday at 3:30pm, until I found out on Tuesday that I had to attend a training in Salt Lake for work. It was scheduled to finish at 2pm. I figured I would get a little bit of extra study time in by changing my test-taking time to 5:30pm (the good part about online classes - you can reschedule your tests) - so I did. When I got back from my training in SLC at 3:00, I immediately set about studying for my test. But I just never felt comfortable with the concepts and didn't really feel like I was going to do well. As the time approached to take the test, I reluctantly left home and drove up to campus.
Upon entering the test-taking center, the proctor could not locate my exam. I waited for about ten minutes while he left the room in search of it. He came back with a test he located and I sat down to begin to take it. It didn't take me long to figure out it wasn't the right test, because a) it looks completely different from the practice tests we had been given, b) the formulas didn't all look familiar, and c) I was allotted two hours to take the test, when I know that the test I was supposed to take was only supposed to be 75 minutes.
I told the proctor my dilemma and he said there wasn't much else he could do, because the main office was closed. He suggested that I reschedule to take my test another day. Since Thursday and Friday were the only days that the test was offered, I reluctantly agreed to reschedule for Friday - knowing I would have to get out of work early in order to make it to the testing center before it closed.
I printed off copies of the practice tests and sent an email both to my professor and to the testing center to let them know what had happened, and to ensure that the correct test would be available for me when I came back in to take it. I was feeling very frustrated and stressed out about the whole ordeal. I returned home and told Deidra. She soon left for enrichment, and I started making myself dinner. While I was making dinner, I decided that I better keep studying. I began doing the first practice test and continued doing it while I was eating dinner. I still wasn't quite grasping on to the concepts and wasn't doing too well. Then, all of a sudden, after examining the answers I had gotten wrong, it all clicked and I understood exactly how to do the problems and the concepts behind them.
No sooner had I had this personal statistical epiphany than the phone rang. I answered it, and it was the proctor I had spoken to earlier. He explained that he had finally been able to locate my test and that I could go up to campus and take the exam right then if I wanted to. I told him I would be there in fifteen minutes and hung up the phone. Right after I hung up the phone, I realized that Deidra had our car at the church and I had no way of getting to campus (she, of course, had left her cell phone home). After making a few calls to our neighbors, I finally found one that was home and had a car available to drive me to campus. So I finally got in and was able to take my test.
Afterward, I came out of the test feeling a lot better about how I did than I had anticipated. I realized that had I taken the test when I was scheduled to, I would not have done very well at all. I am grateful that I had a roadblock in taking the test that allowed me the time to really figure out the concepts I was supposed to be learning. I definitely learned that sometimes what we see as obstacles or trials can really be blessings in disguise - but we may not realize it until later.
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