Looosah (that's "loser" with a New England accent)

Stress.  Disappointment.

We know that stress has a big impact on learning.  My stress this week came from a timed quiz that could not be retaken.  I have not run into this yet in all the grad level courses I have taken over the past few years. 

I read through the material once and take notes.  I read through it again and look over my notes.  By the end of the week I am reading it a third time and decide to take the quiz (more stress as I do not usually do things this close to deadline).

Only 10 questions and there is a timer, in red numbers, counting down off to the side.  More stress.

A question talks about “near native” status.  Well, I read that a student cannot reach native status after the critical window closes, but certainly can learn a second language.  Only the sounds won’t be native-like.  Is that not “near native”?  Stress, more stress.  What exactly does this question mean?

I try to go over all my questions, but the timer mocks me.  Stressful.  If I second guess myself too much, it defeats me.  No matter as I am already defeated.  Submit.

Stress.  I see the class average and mine is below.  A completely new experience for me and extraordinarily disappointing.  I feel like a young student does when they believe the teacher is out to trick them with oddly worded questions (I hear my son's voice in my head "my teacher hates me!").  My confidence plummets.

Did I learn anything?  I thought I knew the material, but that percentage score tells me otherwise.  I know that I believe in letting students have more than one chance to learn the material and prove it on an assessment.  This has been reinforced.  I learned that my stress levels negatively affected my learning and subsequent performance.  Most important, I need to be vigilant that I am not creating this type of stress in my own students.

UPDATE:

The corrected version of the quiz is available and I just took a look (yes, the stress continues for me even after it is all done).  I missed 1 out of 4 matching questions and 1 other question.  Shouldn't I be losing 2 points?  No, the quiz calculated that I lost 5 points.  No matter that I answered 3 of 4 matches correctly, I lose ALL the points.  These feelings are not "graduate student" feelings, they are "middle-school student" feelings that I have right now.  Sigh, time to contact the instructor.

UPDATE:

All taken care of.