Test trap

Ann knew why the principal had called her to the office, she knew what Mr. Smith wanted to discuss with her, her mind was filled with ways to explain herself but still she felt

scared.

Maths was something she could never understand, she was able to score well in all her subjects but when it came to maths, it sucked her in like a whirlpool!

She saw maths as a sadistic monster that was ready to eat her alive and would enjoy every moment of it, all her mightmares consisted of maths, the fear of maths had engulfed her whole life and had dampened all her achievements, she felt if she was not good in maths, all her other achievements paled in comparision!

Her grasp on other subjects, made her the teacher's pet but no matter how hard she tried, she was never able to get the maths teacher to like her, she was always filled with dread whenever it came to the maths test and when the results were announced she knew even before the teacher announced that she had one of the lowest marks in the class!

She felt envious of Mary, her maths teacher always praised her, she always topped in maths and had maintained the record unbeaten for more than a year!, although Mary wasn't good in other subjects and she only ever managed to please the maths teacher, Ann felt a sense of inferiority complex to her.

She felt she could never beat Mary, whenever she saw Mary being praised for her maths skills by the teacher, she felt it could have been her had she practiced harder, she felt she was lacking in something she couldn't describe.

Although other teachers praised her, she couldn't find her happiness in their praises because she was never praised by her maths teacher, she felt her life was like an incomplete puzzle, that had a huge piece missing, that could only be completed with her achieving victory over maths, she yearned hard for that day when she would finally score well in maths and complete the incomplete puzzle of her life!

All her efforts to conquer the maths monster were never successful, she saw every maths test as a battle with high stakes, and she planned and prepared accordingly but all her strategies failed to show any good results.

As she entered the office, Mr. Smith asked her to take a seat and not be anxious, he told her how he understood her fear of maths and he himself was scared of maths when he was her age but with practice he was able to get over the fear and do well in the subject.

This information surprised her, she always admired Mr. Smith because he was always so confident and he could recognise the potential in his students just by observing them, he always tried his best to motivate his students live up to their potential.

The meeting with Mr. Smith had given her a renewed sense of hope that there were other people like her who struggled with maths and it was not a hopeless struggle, that she had no chance of winning but if she motivated herself to try a bit more, perhaps she could slowly improve her scores, even a slight improvement meant a lot to her.

She promised herself that she would perform better than before in the upcoming weekly maths test and beat Mary. She sat

down to practice all the questions, she became so engrossed in improving her maths that she lost track of time, she only realised she had practiced for four hours when her father asked her to come down for dinner!

Practice was the secret to improving her scores, she could see herself defeating the maths monster finally and no longer felt afraid of it, before she conquered maths, she had to conquer her fear of it, she was not doing well in the tests because she let the fear of maths overcome her and ended up forgetting everything she had learnt.

Everytime she practiced, she could see a significant improvement from her past self, she realised she could solve a lot of problems that she had earlier thought were too difficult for her, she imagined the surprised look on her maths teacher's face when she would hand out the results for the test, and how she would proudly walk up to her and for the first time in her school life she wouldn't feel ashamed to take back her answer sheet.

More importantly she wouldn't feel a sense of inferiority infront of Mary, she would finally fill up that complex in her and be able to look at all her achievements with pride, maths would no longer remain an unconquered territory for her!

On the day of the test she felt confident of herself, so much so that she didn't even feel the need to revise once, not even the need to glance a bit!, when she saw others revising, she felt a sense of superiority over them.

When the question papers were handed out by the teacher, she looked around confused, everyone was absorbed in writing, they didn't want to waste even a precious second!

She looked back at the paper, she was still confused, today was supposed to be the maths test, then why had she gotten the english paper?, anxiety began to creep up to her when she realised her mistake, she was so busy practicing that she got the dates for the test mixed up!

But she felt reassured when she realised she was good at english and felt she could ace the test from memory!

She did better than expected in the maths test and her dream of seeing the surprised look on her maths teachers face had come true but she didn't feel any pride because unlike in the past where she scored well in other subjects and maths stood out like a sore thumb among the subjects, the relationship had been reversed!