Here We Go Again

I have postponed writing about this so as to try to alleviate some of my stress. Oh well.

You know the feeling. The room is heavy, silent, sterile. Everyone is sitting in little rows in their desks with their heads down scribbling on their papers. The clock is ticking so loud that you cannot hear yourself think. Someone across the room taps their pencil, and it sounds like a bass drum. You lift your eyes to the ceiling searching your brain for the answer...your mind's eye comes up with nothing...or everything. What do you say? All of it? There's not time...how to decide what to write out of all of the stuff that comes to mind?!? The pressure is too great. Is it hot in here or is it just me?!? Tick, tick, tick...I hate tests.

Saturday, day after tomorrow(*gasp*, heart palpitations...), I have to retake two portions of the National Board Teacher's exam for certification. Perhaps you will remember the debacle which it became the first time that I attempted to succeed on this test. Ugh. The format of the test was so confusing, and I ended up only answering the first half of all of the sections (there is a total of six)...and still, I only missed passing this crazy process by five points. Ugh. Again. I am a terrible test taker. I over analyze. I hate tests.

So, Saturday, I am off to take it again. I had thought that perhaps I would not be too stressed out about it since I was so close last time. The way that the math works out, I only have to score .5 higher than last time on each section (that's only a half point on each one!). You would think that by virtue of the fact that this time I will attempt to answer ALL of the questions in the sections instead of just the first one that I should be in there like swimwear. I sure hope so.

I am stressed out none the less. I have been studying like crazy trying to brush up on the latest educational lingo so that I can throw around important jargon in my answers (because that is so important...). Keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for me at 11 o'clock Saturday. I am taking a sick day tomorrow (*cough, cough* though I really have had my share of sickness recently) so that I can rest up and mentally prepare myself to go in there and hit a home run. (I am not much for sports metaphors, but I think that one is used appropriately here. Home run is really the only sports metaphor that I know...that left me little choice in which one to use here...)

The really lousy part...I still have to wait until November again to see if I passed this process. (Unbelievable, I know...) Taking the written test sections is only one part of the NBPTS process. Thankfully, I scored well on the portfolio, video, and professional portions of this process. Those were the really tough parts...so much writing. It's just the test. So I am back to that. I had hoped that once I finished grad school that my inability to take tests would become a thing of the past. Oh well.

Psss...psss...number 3? It's C, right?!?