Turn the Exams You Just Took Into a Test

Written By: Dr. Rich Houston, Director of the Culverhouse School of Accountancy

Some great things I heard or read this week:

• Struggle now, chill later.
• The only way out is through.
• Our experience of reality can change in a moment.
• This is really difficult for me, but I need to talk to someone.
• Can we just stop every now and then to reflect?
• What defines what makes a person normal? Who decides and what gives them the right?

It’s likely that your first round of exams is over. I gave a very straightforward exam. I want people who need convincing to see how doable answering questions is when you take the time to learn the lay of the land before diving headfirst into the math you tried to memorize. Without the why, you won’t know what numbers to use and how to use them, and unfortunately your calculator will not magically produce the answer. The first step should always be learning what everything “is” in the simplest terms possible. Then, as Thomas Jefferson kind of said, how to determine the answer will be self-evident, and the understanding will allow you to declare your independence from underperformance.

During the exam, I listened?a few times to William Tyler’s new song “Concern,” an instrumental that captures perfectly the progression in which concern evolves into worry and then descends into anxiety, and what that can do to the way you perceive the world. This cartoon has nothing to do with any of it, I just think it’s clever.

Data analytics and shoes. Is it better to say that 67% of the 27 people who took the exam in class wore white sneakers or that, of the 24 people who wore sneakers, 75% wore white. Of course it depends on what question I’m trying to answer. The three non-sneaker people wore moccasins, boots, and UGGs, so no discernible pattern there. And I advise the 75% to keep away from mud and to be careful when eating Italian food while standing.

Regardless of how you scored, the pace doesn't let up and, in some classes, it accelerates. Do what well-coached teams do to ensure consistent performance over a long season. Take a day off, enjoy the rest, and then turn your attention to preparing for the next challenge.

If you did well, don’t fall into the mental trap of “I was just lucky.” You earned it. In addition, avoid regression to the mean, which refers to the tendency for unusually large or small scores to be followed by ones closer to the average. Those with high scores often backslide on the next exam because they stop doing what helped them attain success, which is kind of like deciding to stop taking your medication because you feel better, only to find out that you were feeling better because you took the medication. Keep your foot on the gas and follow the instructions on the shampoo bottle—Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

If you didn’t “get the score you wanted,” carving a path forward may be as simple as working with your teacher to identify the proper tools. So many of you are hesitant to do this, as I was when I was in your shoes, perhaps because of pride or perhaps because we think we’re being a bother. I was quite jealous of my friend Bill, who knew so much more than I did about our teachers and what went on around school simply because he spent time conversing with them and I didn’t. By not doing so, I missed out on a lot. Be like Bill.

To those of you who came up what you consider to be disastrously short, realize that you can make hitting rock bottom the starting point for experiencing dramatic improvement. Focus on the outcome only as long as it takes to identify what caused it, and then quickly move on to fight another day.

I know you may not believe me, but I assure you that you can do better. Perhaps it’s time to draw a line in the sandbox that is your life. You have the power to decide that “I’m sick of this and it’s time to make a change.” I’ve had many people in my classes who started badly and never would have imagined that they’d subsequently perform as well as they did or be where they are now, but they all made up their mind that they would no longer let poor performance define them and obscure what they were capable of accomplishing. The moral of the story is that if you think you need to point your life in a different direction, you’re probably right. It takes courage, which you do have, although you may have to show it to believe it.

I love this cartoon because it’s a work in progress about what we all are—a work in progress.