How much notice did you receive about an upcoming exam from your parents, school personnel, etc.

Just wondering if timing of exam notice and by whom has made a difference in your reactions?

My mom would usually wait until the morning of the exam to tell me. I had many exams, due to internal problems, as I grew up and I usually made myself sick with anxiety if I knew ahead of time.

I don't ever remember being given any notice. The paperwork would arrive from the school, Mom made the appointment, and we went. I never gave it a second thought.

Mom said go, so we went. I was brought up in a time when you didn't question your parents or object about their decisions.

Definitely! I was never given much notice, usually was told that same day of the exam. It would cause a lot of anxiety because for that whole day I couldn't think of anything else but the upcoming exam.

In senior school at about 15yo, I was given a note to take home about 2 weeks before the exam, but it said little about what the exam would consist of and inviting a parent to attend. Knowing what would happen from classmates, there was no way I would allow a parent to attend. In fact very few parents did attend.

School exams were always announced on the day, lest prior notice result in absence. I was normally given several days notice before going to my family doctor because the actual examination didn't frighten me. My only worry when ill was whether I would get any injections and, if so, where but I presumed that a routine medical when not ill would not require any. My confidence was once shattered when, after the examination, I had to drop trousers, pull down pants and bend over the receptionist's lap for booster shots that left me unable to sit down.

I was not given any advance notice of exams until I was thirteen. Prior to then, I would find out on the way to the doctor's office. It was not a big deal to me until I started having my briefs pulled down at age eleven after which advance notice of an exam would have me anxious from the time I found out about it until it was over. This anxiety continues to this day when I find out I have to get w physical. As the date grows closer, the anxiety builds until there is sleeplessness the night before. I try to schedule exams for early in the morning so I do not have to think about it all day long and I aim for a Thursday or Friday so my weekend is not spoiled.

It would be known that the doctor had your school and your grade on his scheduled examination list. You did not know when your turn to be examined would come. But then a student office worker would come into one of your classes and hand the teacher a note. The teacher would announce that the doctor is here and would like to see the following students. Eight at a time marched down to the nurses office. The doctor would announce "shirts off". You would wait in a chair until the doctor called you behind the screen. After he was finished with you, you put back on your shirt and undershirt and marched singly backed to your scheduled class.

Mom rarely gave advanced notice. We usually found out the night before or the morning of the exam, or just driven there after school. Now having notice also allows for more arousal up until the night before then anxiety wins out. Is there anything quite as potent as hearing, the doctor will see you now.

If I had taken ill as a child and needed medical care (rarely) I went to the doctor with little notice. My annual physical was conducted by my own doctor and never the school district. (thank goodness) I was given very short notice regarding the appointment but would typically occur near the end of the school year or sometime during the summer months.

Yes, Julie, there is one thing more potent to hear - a nurse saying "Pull down your pants and bend over; this won't hurt" as she prepares an injection.

Goodness, you are so right when it comes to being inside the exam room. I guess we might create a list of those dreadfully embarrassing comments or directives such as ...... Thanks Jabbotuk..

We would find out that morning. I'd have to spend the whole day at school thinking about getting examined later. Needless to say, it was difficult to concentrate on school on those days.

Glad you agree, Julie. Throughout youth and adolescence my most dread experiences involved injections, especially the humiliation of bending over a receptionist's lap for her to watch me get them in my vulnerable bare bottom. Merely seeing an injection in a tray made me fear that it was for me and where I would get it but worst of all was the nurse's comment, "Pull down your pants and bend over; this won't hurt," because I knew that was a false platitude.

I scheduled a physical with a new doctor, so I immediately wrote down when it was in my phone's calendar. They emailed me three days ago to remind me about the appointment and left me a voice mail message last night as another reminder. The appointment is 12/7.

I might have had some notice the night before an exam when I was a kid if I was being taken to the doctor or clinic for an exam but don't remember knowing anything about upcoming physicals until just before the appointment. Didn't go to the doctor for a physical for most of my teen years as I always got a sports physicals at school every year. Those were held every August in the school gym and were for all boys going out for sports in the coming school year. This was before email so I guess we got a letter at home from the school district or the coaches every summer that said which Saturdays were for all boys to have sports physicals. Don't remember thinking about it all summer. Then our Dad would say that we had a physical at school the next morning and to take a shower tonight because during the summer we might go a few days without one. He would drive us to the school on Saturday morning and we joined a lot of other boys for our physicals. The other time that we got physicals was sometimes before we went to boy scout camp and a doctor would volunteer to do the whole troop at his office on a Saturday. Since we went to scout camp in June, we had to have our physicals soon after the end of the school year. Some years meant two physicals in the same summer although that did not happen every year. Seems like scout camp physicals were every two or three years. Didn't matter that we had a sports physical coming up two months later.

My mom would tell my sister and I, something like "going to the doctor's next week." Then the day before she would remind us of the appointment. If it was a morning appointment she would wake early so we both could take a bath or shower. Usually, my mom alway took us late summer or the beginning of school.

Some years in elementary/middle school it was required that you had to see the their doctor. My mom knew but never told me because my anxiety would build to making myself sick. Usually, all the boys in a certain grade level were taken to the nurse' office for the exam.

In high school, the day before physical you would get a note & time report to the nurse's office. Of course, anxiety built all day just thinking about the exam an a sleepless night. The letter stated everything about the sport/school physical from clothing to wear to showering if your PE class was before the exam . That there would be different health stations and the last station would be the genital/hernia exam.

My mom would tell me that she had booked it for whenever and then she would write it on the calendar in the kitchen. She would then tell me again about a week before and again the day before. I used to hate her reminding me and even thought she liked telling me. Probably just me being weird lol.

In school whenever there was anything 'medical' happening our registration tutors handed out letters for us to take home a few weeks before then they would tell us at the beginning of the week that the exam or whatever was taking place this week and told us which day each letter of the alphabet would have to go to the nurses office. Then each morning they would read out the names of the ones who had to go that day and at what time. I feel nervous now thinking about it. It felt like death row!

I was told morning of the exam by my parents that i would be going to the doctors that day which i was ok with