The day before THE DAY

As I am writing this, I should probably be nervous. It would be totally natural. I am about to write a 4 and 1/2 hour exam tomorrow morning (8:30 am) that may determine my future. I don't mean good future or bad future. I mean the path that I will take through life may change irreversibly thanks to this test. Tests have never had that much importance before this point and they probably won't have as much importance after this point. At this point, I can pin my calmness to two factors. First the test, while long and thoroughly comprehensive, is not weighted as heavily as grades in the application process. I am also consoled by the fact that the program I am applying for only looks at a percentile score. A 95 percentile score is much easier to get than 95% on the test. (The scaled score ranges from 100 to 600, with a mean of 400 and a standard deviation of 30. This means that if you get 450, you are already at the 95th percentile). Secondly, I feel that it is too late to do anything and it is out of my hands. This is probably a natural human response to stress. Just think, if they told you tomorrow that global warming was past the point of no return, wouldn't you feel a bit relieved that its solution no longer depended on your green efforts or lack there of.