Exam
For the last 2 years I’ve been working on obtaining another professional certification. In part because my real profession requires me to take a number of continuing education courses per year, but also in part because I think it’s a very good skill to have for work and life in general. It’s a mediation / conflict resolution program.
I missed a course back in January when we went to Hawaii as they released the course dates after we have paid for our trip. So, I have to delay graduation by a full year. But, I asked to challenge the exam this year as I have completed the other 11 courses and the material is fresh in my mind.
After some deliberation my request was approved.
But that meant I had to spend the last few weeks preparing for the exam, while knowing that I do not have all the courses under my belt and also knowing that I didn’t really care to put a lot of time into preparing. While I wasn’t stressed about needing to pass as I’m doing this for me, not for an employer or career requirement, I can honestly say at times I started to regret my decision to challenge the exam this year. Putting it off for an entire extra year just seemed so much easier right now!
Anyways, once I paid the fees, I knew I wouldn’t back out. So, last week I had part 1 of my exam. It was an oral exam. I have not done an oral exam for about 10 years, when I did professional certification ethics exam in front of a review panel. And before that I can only recall one other oral exam, that being in a university Spanish class (how I passed that I’ll never know). Needless to say I was rather nervous going into this newest oral exam!
But, alas, part 1 is done. And now, tomorrow, I complete part 2 and find out if I pass or fail. Part 2 is a one-on-one review of Part 1 to review what my strength were and what I need to improve. Needless to say, I’ve had 6 days to complete my personal review of Part 1 and I haven’t started it yet. Maybe I should make that a priority for today?
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Oh wow! I only remember one oral exam, which was also for Spanish in high school. I only passed that by the skin of my teeth!! I’m sure you did great on your test, and good luck tomorrow!!
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Oh, good luck! These days I usually sit on the opposite side of an oral exam committee (we’re doing oral exams for our MA students next week), so they seem much less scary to me somehow. 🙂 But I remember how terrifying they were to take as a student! The thing we always tell our students is: one reason oral exams always feel so awful is because they’re really great for probing exactly the boundary of what you do and don’t know — and that is a really uncomfortable place to have to answer questions! But as an examiner, we’re used to quickly finding and exploring that boundary, and just because we’re on the boundary doesn’t mean we’re not impressed by all the great stuff that our students do know! I hope the written part feels better to you, and that you get good news back quickly!
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Haha good luck!!!!
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Yikes that sounds VERY stressful!!! Good luck! Hope you found some words ☺️
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Good luck to you. You’ll rock it, I’m sure!
My hubby is in Calgary right now doing the first part of a 3 part certification process. We are starting a new business in the fall 🙂
All I have to say is I am glad it’s not me going through the testing. I am such a wreck with that kind of stuff.
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Starting a new business sounds very exciting and also very nerve-racking! I hope the tests and the business both go great! 🙂
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Good luck! How incredibly stressful but will be a huge accomplishment once completed I’m sure!
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