"Don’t think. If you think, you will fail." That's not a Zen master speaking, but my government teacher. "I’ve seen plenty of students go wrong because they were creative, intelligent people and they thought about the questions. Don’t do it. Copy exactly what’s in the box. Word for word.”

Her lips twitched into a smile, but she wasn’t joking. She was referring to the Document Based Questions section of the U.S. History and Government Regents exam, a test that will be the culmination of my last three semesters and has turned my government class into test prep for the past three weeks.

The sad part? She’s right. And the really sad part? Because she’s right, instead of teaching us how to analyze and understand government, our last 15-plus classes have been spent learning to copy from the box. I don’t blame my teacher at all, her job is to help us do well on the Regents exams and she’s giving us the best advice she can.

Still, isn’t it weird that after more than 12 years of school, the big expectation is that I can copy words of text onto an answer sheet?

Well, I’ll do it. I want a good grade like the next guy, so I’ll turn my brain off when I sit for the Regents next week. I hope that after graduating high school I’ll be able to think again.