Personal narrative on standardized test performance and capability

Standardized Testing Anxiety

Despite my less-than-perfect score on my GRE, I still believe I am an appropriate and worthwhile candidate for the MS/MPH program at University of Massachusetts Amherst. I am among that small but realistic percentage of individuals that often score poorly on standardized tests, and the GRE was no exception to that. However, instead of discussing what I did not do well on, allow me to tell you what I can do. I have been a registered nurse for 6 years and work in the emergency room, recovery room, and critical care areas. Even though I did not score very well on my SAT, I was still accepted into several undergraduate institutions, as these schools believed in what I was capable of doing.

Throughout nursing school I maintained a 3.0 GPA. I have also taken graduate courses in the Masters of Information Systems program at Bowie State University where I maintained a GPA that remained above a 3.0. I was pleased with my accomplishments and with the fact that I did not let down the individuals and institutions that understood that my poor standardized test scores did not reflect my intelligence, my ability to learn, or my ability to be a caring and adept nurse.