It’s Wednesday morning and the big psychology test first period that you know you are about to fail is less than an hour away. You could cram in as much information as possible, but come test time, all that information that was stuffed into your brain last minute will be all jumbled together and you will likely not do well on the test.
Students should be able to express that they feel unprepared for the assessment and be allowed to take that assessment at a later date. Unfortunately, a teacher willing to help in this matter is hard to come by.
Thankfully, there are multiple methods students can use that will allow them to skip the test on test day and take it at another time when they are more prepared.
For those fortunate enough to have parents who understand the stress that can be put on a kid, one option for some is to ask their parents if they can sleep in and skip the test. While this method may work once or twice, eventually your parents will stop allowing you to stay home. Another viable option for skipping tests is “faking sick” and asking to go to the health room.
Since a teacher cannot prove that a student isn’t feeling well, they have to let them go to the health room. Again, this plan will stop working after one or two attempts, and eventually, students will need to get more creative in their test skipping.
The health room method goes hand in hand with asking to talk to a counselor, since a teacher cannot deny a student from receiving guidance from the counselors if they look like they really need to go talk to them.
One extreme, almost foolproof, method of skipping a test is to bring your own barf from home. By mashing up leftovers from the night before, like orange juice, Nutella and crackers, one can convincingly make their own throw up. The trickiest part with this method is getting the throw up from the bag onto the desk or test.
In extreme cases in which a student forgets that he even has a test until the second he walks in the class, all hope is not lost. Although not the most conventional method, getting in a heated argument about how you’re not prepared for the test and then storming out of the class will assure that the test will not be taken that day. Sure, you’ll have some other problems to deal with, but at least the test won’t be one of them.
One thing that is important to keep in mind when attempting any of these tricks is to be slick, and remember that what the teacher doesn’t know won’t hurt them.
None of these tactics should be necessary. Teachers should understand that a student who is forced to take a test they’re ill prepared for is not doing themselves or the teacher any good.
Students should be able to postpone a test until they are prepared. Teachers should still be able to limit this opportunity, but not to the point that students feel the need to resort to these methods.

Geoff Pisarra

News Editor