Summary Of This Is A Test By Stephen Gregg

813 Words4 Pages

Have you ever had difficulty taking a test, couldn’t concentrate and were easily frustrated? Or known someone like this? I have ADD and often feel this way in school. In This is a Test by Stephen Gregg, Alan shares the same struggles during test taking as someone with ADD/ADHD. He fears that his classmates know something he doesn’t and have it a lot easier than him, he gets distracted easily, and he doesn’t think the test makes any sense. Some people with ADD/ADHD fear that others have it a lot easier than themselves, or know something that they don’t know. In the play, Alan imagines that everyone in the class has learned chinese on the day he was absent. I have felt like this has happened to me before, but really I was just zoned out …show more content…

One of Alan’s biggest distractions are the voices in his head, reciting different variations of “This is a pen.” “A what?” “A pen.” “A what?” “A pen.” “Oh a pen.” (Gregg 225). Sometimes when I am trying study or do something important I will get a song stuck in my head and won’t be able to get anything done until it’s gone. People in Alan’s class are also constantly asking the teacher things like the time, or for another bluebook. Alan gets annoyed and says, “Would you stop that! Why don’t you get a watch. Some of us are trying to concentrate here.” (Gregg 231). To someone with ADD/ADHD, any kind of disruption can be a distraction sometimes. Alan finds it hard to focus on his test with the voices and the asking of questions. He also has a daydream that he is back home with his mother and he hasn’t taken the test and everything is good. In his daydream he fell asleep studying and was woken up by his mother who has good news. She baked cookies and a thick envelope from Majestica University, his dream school, had arrived. A lot of people daydream during school, especially people who have trouble concentrating and struggles with this too. His daydreaming, listening to the voices in his head, and frustration take up a lot of time and he might not be able to finish his