Most of us have probably had dreams where we either oversleep for a school test, or worse arrive on time and realize we are utterly unprepared for the test. The odd thing is that these dreams regularly occured well after I graduated college. It took me about ten years to stop having these dreams. Is this common? Did you have variants of this dream? Did your dreams happen in real life?
I’ve had this dream, only for me it’s that I’ve forgotten to go to class all semester, just remembered that I’m enrolled, and the final is today!
I’m 34…still have that dream occasionally. Hate it.
Ugh. I also have that dream. Once the I had it with the twist that I had to go back to high school and take a class I had forgotten. I’m in law school now. I woke up so relieved from that one.
Strangely, I never had the test dream.
I have dreams where I am not prepared for a test in high school, or did not take a required course needed to graduate from college, but I quickly (in the dream) relax and realize I don’t need to worry, as I am already licensed to be a lawyer and it won’t matter at all.
I haven’t stopped. 
I’m 44, and a community college professor. And under times of stress, I still have this dream.
I haven’t. But with me it’s not so much a test as it is that I’m in some random classroom (not clear what class it is) and there’s homework I should have done that I’m scrambling to do.
Or, even more commonly, I’m in orchestra class and I’ve forgotten how to play the violin (not that I was ever that good at it) and my scary dragon lady of a teacher is going to take out her frustrations out on us. shudder It’s been over ten years since I was in that situation but it still gets to me when I dream about it.
I’m 38 and still have it on a fairly regular basis. I’m looking forward to the day (night) it finally stops completely.
I never had that dream. The closest I had were going back to high school, where I have not actually finished my degree, and am secretly trying not to let anyone know how old I am.
The next closest is bieng in a situation where something supposedly has writing on it, but I can’t read it. I found out quite early on that the way of handling those is to pretend like I know what it says, and I’m always right. Perhaps doing that in your test dreams would help you.
I stopped having that dream after it happened to me in real life.
Twice.
I enjoy tests and have never had test anxiety, so I’ve never had this dream. I’ve had the “naked in school” dream several times, though.
Never had the test one. But still have the trying to find the room and can’t, trying to get ready to go somewhere but never make it, waiting for the bus, but the right one never comes, trying to dial the phone and cannot.
Sigh.
Its usual I’ll have a sad, or scary dream and wake up feeling like crap.
No, the other morn, I started dreaming I was about to have sex with the Situation and bam, some people come knocking loudly on the door. Thanks.
I’m 53 and still have this dream occasionally.
I’ve had the dream where I forgot I was enrolled in a class and never went, only to show up for the final. I’m very good at tests and never really stressed and always got A’s on them, so I’m not sure why I get this dream. I also get a dream where it’s opening night of a play that I have a role in, but I’d forgotten all about it, haven’t read the script, and haven’t been to any rehearsals. And the curtain is about to go up!
I’m 38.
In my line of work, I regularly cram huge amounts of only half-digested knowledge into my small hamster brain, regurgitate it at one meeting, then dump it all out as I cram an entirely different shedload of information into my head for the next meeting. This is pretty much my life.
In my adult version of the test dream, I show up to the meeting utterly unprepared and freak right the hell out. I get that dream ALL THE TIME.
The only upside is that I always wake up before the meeting actually starts. <whew!>
I’m 44, and I still have the dream. I also have similar dreams, like:
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Per PeskiPiksi. enrolling for a class, forgetting to attend, and only remembering it long after drop-add or close to the end of the semester.
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Per Procrustus, being in my last semester of school, and not having taken a prerequisite that I need to graduate.
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Being sent back to high school, college or grad school because I didn’t take some prerequisite class, and my diploma is now invalid without it.
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Completely forgetting my schedule a couple of weeks after the start of the semester, and struggling to get a copy from the registrar.
I’m 36, and I had that dream last month.
It was wonderful. Not the dream (which was horrible), but waking up and remembering that I had graduated. Made may day.
40+, I still have that and related dreams. My most recent one involved “realizing” that I was supposed to still be in high school all these years, and that they were going to hold me responsible for missing all those years of classes. And that I was due for class right now.
I’m 36, I graduated from college in 1997, and I still have variations of this dream. I also have high school sports related dreams of a similar vein. I played sports competitively all through high school, so sometimes I dream that I’m at practice before a volleyball or basketball game and I freak out because I’m out of practice and out of shape.