How I Gaslit Myself in the Exam Hall

You know that moment in an exam when your gut is quietly begging you to just stick with your answer, but your brain suddenly goes, ‘Wait, what if we just… change it for no reason?’ Yeah. That was me this week.

I had the right answer. Ticked it off. Feeling good. Honestly, feeling a little smug. And then, for reasons I still can’t explain, I erased it.

Because why trust your instincts when you can overthink yourself straight into a mess?

Here comes the post-exam guilt. You know the kind — where you walk out and that one question just keeps playing in your head on repeat, like the world’s most annoying thought. Over and over. And over.

But here’s the thing: I know I’m not the only one who does this. We all second-guess. We all beat ourselves up after. So I figured, if I write this out, maybe it’ll do two things at once:

Help me let it go.
Help you feel slightly less unhinged when it happens to you.

Because honestly, post-exam guilt isn’t really about the question. It’s that little sting of ‘ugh, I knew better.’ But knowing better doesn’t always mean you do better in the moment. It just means you’re human. Messy, overthinking, test-anxious, swap-the-right-answer-for-the-wrong-one human. Welcome to the club.

Next time? Maybe I’ll actually listen to my gut. Or maybe I’ll do this all over again — who knows. For now, I’m just going to laugh at myself a little. Because it’s just one answer. Exams might measure a lot, but they definitely don’t measure how much our brains love to mess with us after it’s all over.

So if you’ve been stuck replaying That One Question too — hey, you’re not alone. We’ll survive. Promise.