Testing anxiety...

For the past week I have been studying my brains out in order to prepare for this beautiful test I so easily forgot about, due to the wonderful summer break I'm experiencing. You see, since I teach FIRST grade, and I will now be approaching my fourth year of teaching, the time has come for me to renew my level one license to a level two license. Peace of cake right? How hard can a test be when all you teach is first grade? Well if your line of thinking is parallel with mine then you'd be astonished to find out that YOU'RE WRONG!! Like I said, I teach first grade but apparently I am suppose to be able to know and recall information that I never use and haven't even thought about since my early days in high school. For example....world history was one of the major topics of study. I was required to know all major and minor aspects of math, language arts, science and social studies/world history. And I'm talking EVERY SINGLE LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY from the beginning of man kind. Practically dated back to Adam and Eve. Really people? The furthest I go in social studies in first grade is north, east, south and west! So, Friday night I went up to my parents house for a little one on one help from my dad. Now, let me tell you. My father should be the next Jeopardy contestant. This man in a fountain of knowledge!! Thanks to my dad and his wonderful love of history, he pretty much summed up my entire high school and elementary school curriculum combined in one night. That night I went to bed. I had my calculator, proof of ID, my admission ticket for the test, and three #2 pencils sharpened and ready to go. Since the test was at BYU in the testing center I was a little worried that I'd get lost and not be able to find the building, so my wonderful husband offered to wake up at 6:45 and drive me himself to the testing center and wait for two hours while I took the dreaded test (how sweet). As I walked inside I recognized a friend of mine from college who was in the same boat as me....only thing is that this was her FIFTH time taking the test in hopes that she would pass. Okay, so maybe it was just her but what you don't know is that I had talked to several other teachers who had to take it a minimum of three times just to pass? My hopes were diminishing by the second. After waiting in line for the testing center to seat us in the room, I finally approached the front of the line. As I handed her my ID, she then realized that it was expired! My drivers license had just barely expired by about a month. She was not going to let me in! Now, did I mention that I had to pay $150.00 to take this stupid test? I was getting through the doors whether she liked it or not. Another lady came along and pulled me aside. She asked me if I had any other form of ID. Of course I didn't because I was planning on getting in with my drivers license. Fortunately I had an old school ID, with my maiden name that was also expired but don't worry that for some reason it was more legit than my recently expired drivers license with my new name? Go figure.

After finally getting in and seated, they passed out the test. As I started I grew nervous knowing that if I didn't pass then I'd be back in this same boat taking it again. I started taking the test and by golly I felt like the most uneducated person in the world! Really? Could this test really be that hard? Did they really expect me to know all this crap!? I was screwed! Thank goodness for my father who had given me the crash coarse on world history the night before? It was the only stuff I knew! Finally I finished, just in time and rushed out to me my patiently waiting husband. On our way home he told me we had to stop and drop off the study book he had checked out for me from BYU. That's when I realized that we were no where near BYU and we were pulling in to Jamba Juice. It was so nice to finally be done with the test and enjoying a wonderful Aloha Pineapple delight. Thanks babe for all your support! Now I just have to wait four weeks to see how stupid I really am, when my test scores are finally mailed. Wish me luck! Good thing I have a second job.