Good Luck On Your Test

Good luck on your test is an often heard wish extended to many students. The interesting and vital point to understand, however, is that luck has nothing to do with how well a person performs on a test.

At The Core Of So-Called Luck

Barbara Bush once said, “You don’t just luck into things as much as you would like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it is friendships or opportunities.” With that being said, what does Barbara Bush suggest we should understand?

Simply put, my understanding of what some people think is luck is better understood by knowing the preceding ingredients that bode well for what many people assume was luck. This means that luck is not the beginning of any process but, instead, is what happens at the end. So, what does it mean, than, to be seen as a person who is lucky? And, what does this luck have to do with doing well on an exam or test?

Understanding The Basics Of Doing Or Getting Anything

Let’s turn to the distant past and read the inspirational quote of a former U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson, who stated, “I’m a great believer in luck,and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” What Jefferson is suggesting is that luck has its’ underpinnings in work. In other words, the harder you work, the more work you do, the luckier you are. Does this explanation satisfy or clarify what luck is?

Luck In A Test

Let’s go back to our original discussion of luck as it pertains to doing well in a test or an exam. When we understand what both Barbara Bush and Thomas Jefferson said, then we are more likely to appreciate what constitutes luck in the eyes of those who lack the basic ingredients that comprise what it means to be lucky. Luck is preparation and the more preparation one does, the luckier that person will be. This principle applies to each person that wants to do well on a test. It is the beforehand preparation that makes the real difference rather than some mystical expression of luck bestowed on a person.

The Creation Of Luck

So, let’s go back even further to aspects of how to create ‘luck’ for an upcoming test. The basis for doing well in a test begins from the first day an individual starts a course of study. This means that a person needs to:

1) focus on what is being taught in every lesson, and
2) to take what has been taught and understood from the previous lesson to build a base for the next lesson, and
3) to understand that at the end of the course work there will be a test conducted to measure how well a person has assimilated the information throughout the entire course

Sounds good, doesn’t it; very simple process. But, here’s what most people fail to understand. If there is no work involved, there is no gain. In other words, if you are given something for free there is very little value attached to the gift because nothing had to be given to obtain it. Or, if it didn’t cost you anything, for example, like sweat, tears, hours of studying than you gave nothing of yourself for its acquisition. Laziness requires no effort whereas work requires dedication and perseverance.

Change Of Perception

The perception that luck plays in a lot of aspects of life is the erosion of what effort it takes to move the yardsticks forward. If you review many famous people or successful business people you will often hear people state that they were lucky in business, or many other types of endeavors. The real truth, however, is that luck had nothing to do with good fortune in business or other fields. The real truth is that many who have reached success did so only after failures and, for some, many failures. All that people see is the end result of years of preparation; to position oneself for a promotion, for example, often meant years of toiling to acquire new skills that prepared that person to be promoted. This promotion wasn’t just being in the right place at the right time but was more that the person positioned themselves by and through hard work.

To Ace A Test

The method of being able to ace a test is the prior effort that it took to be well prepared. This preparation meant hours of studying; hours that one could easily have squandered by doing many other non-essential tasks. To ace a test isn’t luck; to ace a test meant that preparation, dedication and perseverance paid big dividends. So, will you depend on cramming for a test and simply hoping for the best or will you prepare for the test and walk into the exam room confident that your hours and hours of preparation will be rewarded? It’s your choice.

I would suggest you pin this slogan in front of your eyes wherever it is most prominent: Luck is created through preparation through hard work.

The Truth Broadcasted For Others

Some people do not see the effort so-called lucky people put in. Like everything else in this life, you must put in effort. One positive action and behavior that is yours to give is to help other people you know whether they be classmates or colleagues, that luck is not secret ingredient to success. Your ability to help clarify the seeds of what others will probably first see as luck is the clarification that preparation comes before success.

Don’t Give Up

If failure should visit you, never quit. The greatest lessons can be learned through failure. Why is this? It is because failure shows you what went wrong and what went right. Within each failure are the seeds of success. This means that failure should first be viewed as a lesson of life filled with advice rather than viewed as a reason to quit and never try again. The same thinking is used daily by athletes who can’t reach their goal on the first attempt. Do they quit because they failed or do they digest and interpret and find what went wrong so that they can correct their mistakes? The answer is obvious.

You are the same as a finely tuned and forward moving athlete. Why do I say this? Think back, for example, to those days gone by when you first learned to walk or ride a two wheeled bicycle. Did you immediately succeed without failing? No, I’m sure you didn’t. The secret of success is failure because of what it teaches; failure says look to ot to find and correct mistakes not to cast yourself into perpetual gloom never to try again.

So, do you still believe that luck has anything to do with doing well on a test?

To quote Zig Ziglar, “This I do know beyond any reasonable doubt. Regardless of what you are doing, if you pump long enough, hard enough and enthusiastically enough, sooner or later the effort will bring forth the reward.”

The Same Message

You see the same theme running through the words of these famous people -it appears to them that luck is actually the results of taking action and persevering.

It Is Not Luck

Good fortune does not happen because of luck. As we alluded to earlier, when someone gets a promotion, some people see this as luck. If they took a closer look, however, they would soon recognize how much harder successful people have worked, how much effort they’ve given, and how much dedication and commitment they’ve demonstrated in order to go that extra mile.

Carl Zuckmeyer said, “One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline – and that’s the important half, for without discipline you wouldn’t knowwhat to do with luck.”

Robert Collier said it best when he said, “All of us have bad luck and good luck. The man who persists through the bad luck, who keeps right on going, is the man who is there when the good luck comes, and is ready to receive it.”

Wise Words

So next time you feel like you don’t have any luck, remember these wise words and keep on going – step by step, with enthusiasm, discipline and persistence, and you will find luck!