Not So Bad Grade

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By Michael Wang

I walked into my geometry class and on the board I read, “Test Corrections this hour.” I found my way to my seat and patiently waited. My teacher slowly handed out the pink colored tests that we had taken the other day. She said it would be one of the hardest tests of the entire year. I expected a good grade, since I usually am a pretty good student. I saw my two friends, who had just gotten their tests back, both with completely different reactions on their faces. One friend had an expression of pure joy, and the other friend was shaking his head, sighing as he flipped through the pages in the test. My teacher started walking toward me; I saw my writing on the test as the pink paper landed on my desk upside down. I saw red ink through the back of the pages and my heart started to pound.
I slowly turned my paper over and my heart pounded harder with each second. Finally, my paper flipped over. On the very top of the page, I saw the word “Retest” circled in a red pen. My heart stopped. I could not believe what I received on the test. In geometry class if you receive under a seventy percent or a C-, you are eligible to take a retest to improve your grade. I received sixty-two percent on the geometry test. As I started to thumb through each individual page, I saw circles, checks, and numbers by almost every other question in red. There were many thoughts running through my mind all at once.
Then, I remembered, what is my father going to say? What is my mother going to say? What are they going to think after I tell them what I got on the test? As the rest of the day went on, I could not forget about my grade. As the final bell sounded, I packed all of my belongings and got on the bus. As all of my friends laughed and told jokes on the bus, I silently sat in my bus seat, thinking about my grade and what I should do about it.
As I got closer and closer to my house, many ideas came to my mind. I could tell my parents some good news first, and then say my grade, or I could act like it was not even a big deal. I even thought about lying. I was ashamed of thinking of the third idea. When my bus stopped at my house, I stepped off and slowly walked to my front door. I opened the door and walked in. I was immediately greeted by my dad who asked the usual question, “How was your day?” I silently sighed and broke the news to him.
I almost flinched, expecting him to explode on me. At first, all he did was sigh and give me a very stern look. He asked me, “What happened?” No words came out of my mouth. He raised his voice and repeated, “What happened?!” I finally softly said, “I don’t know.” All I could hear was him scolding me about how I do not try hard enough and do not do any homework to prepare for my tests. Then, his voice softened and he calmed down. He asked me a simple question that he still constantly asks me. “Do you know what you did wrong?” I explained to him that I did study and I did do my homework, but I just froze during the test, wasting a lot of time on questions that I did not completely understand how to do. He gave me a very tiny grin.
At that time, I was fighting back tears because I knew that I could have done so much better on the test but I just was not able to. My dad then asked me to bring him my geometry book and reviewed some questions with me to see what my problem was. We went through the chapter, section by section, until he eventually found a pattern with each section. I had confused all the formulas. He helped me study for the retest by reviewing all of the formulas and doing some review problems.
The retest finally came and I felt very confident. I came home happy because I had received a good grade on the retest. I came home with good news and my dad was so happy for me. Through this lesson I have learned how to deal with bad grades.
A child cannot be perfect, though their parents may want them to be. The best way is to believe and trust their child. Most important of all, the parents must encourage them. For me, once I lost confidence, I started to scramble during the test. But my dad gave me confidence. Knowing that my dad believed in me and trusted me really helped me be a confident person, do well on the test, and help me in life.
Overall, I learned that getting a bad grade is not the worst thing that can happen. It is really how you deal with the grade that matters. It is almost unavoidable to receive a bad grade, and when it happens, panic rushes through you and dealing with it is very difficult. Lying or avoiding the subject is a very bad choice because they only lead to more anger and loss of trust between you and your parents.
The best way to deal with the grade is to be straight up with your parents and let them know what really happened. Lying will not help. How your parents respond is up to them but in the long run, it will only help you do better in life. Bad grades are inevitable, but using them to help you for the future is sometimes even better than getting a good grade. Life always has bumps down the road, but how you climb over each bump is what will drive you forward through life. This bump in my road was a pretty big one, but without it, I would not have been able to succeed like I have in life.