part two, round two

Here we go with part 2, round 2 of my dental school boards. Hooray for standardized tests. When I took the entrance exam for dental school, I postponed my exam over and over and over again...until I couldn't anymore. When I finally did take the darn test, I aced it and got multiple offers to dental school. A few years into dental school, when it came time to take the first part of the National Board Dental Exam, I was terrified all over again and certain that I would do horribly. But of course I passed. So when it was time to sit for yet another standardized exam for dental school, I finally convinced myself that it would be fine this time around. I've done this before.  

But it wasn't fine. Even after long study days like this one, I missed the mark when I took the National Board Dental Exam Part 2. And while I was only short by 2 measly points, the whole process has completely shattered what little confidence I had. I found out that I failed the exam midway through the summer. At the time, retesting was not a possibility as I spent my summer semester drowning in lab work. So here I am studying and planning to take this exam over the holidays. I skipped Thanksgiving this year to give myself those days off to study and I'm bailing out on a few Christmas celebrations too. Hopefully, it will all be worth it. Now that I've joined the club that I never wanted to be in, I've come to find out that some of my other schoolmates have failed the exam up to 5 times. Five Times! I can't go through this 5 times, but clearly I haven't been prepared properly for this exam. So I'm on my own. I'm hoping the fact that I almost passed the first time and that I'm studying on top of that will be enough to see me through. But technically, there is also a potential that I could do worse since each version of the exam evaluates different topics. Such the optimist, I know. But for now, this is my season in life to struggle.