To become a level two teacher, and basically be a teacher forever, you have to take the Praxis II exam. I prepared, I studied, I even made flashcards. I was so ready. Then I went to take the test. I should have known this was going to be bad. I had to be up on campus by 7:30. I get there and just stand around for a while and then they tell us we can go into the classes to take the test. To get in was like getting into an exclusive club: they checked your ID against a list and if you weren't on their list, they booted you. After waiting in one line, I find out they changed the room number at the last minute. Luckily it was just across the hall, but still...life isn't stressful enough, let's play musical classrooms. And as we're waiting in line, I over hear one girl say that her friend took this test 4 times before she past. (start hyperventilating)
We finally get in the class and into our seats. Now on the ticket/info thing I got, it said that if you arrived a minute after 7:30, you would not be allowed in. Yet, up until 7:45, they were letting people walk in. So then they finally start...with reading a million instructions and yelling at anyone who is chewing gum, myself included. Then they had to pass out test booklets, which was mad extra fun by the fact that they had 9 different tests going on in our room, and each one had different instructions and booklets. We finally started around 8:15.
The Praxis II exam consists of 24 multiple choice question, then reading 4 case studies and answering questions about what teachers did right and wrong, making sure you mention different teaching and learning techniques, which I knew inside and out. When I was studying, I read a bunch of these, so I knew that when writing these, more is better. So on the first three (out of 12), I wrote everything I could think of to go with the topic. I was so creative and wrote fun activities that the teacher could have done instead. Then I looked at the clock...45 MINUTES..for THREE QUESTIONS!!!!! Did I mention you only have 2 hours for the whole test? AHHHHHHH!!!!!
So I started working a little faster. I get about 3/4 of the way done and look up...30 minutes left!!! So I started frantically writing anything I could think of, as fast as I could. I think I'll get the last three marked completely wrong because they're not quite legible. But I FINISHED!!! With 45 seconds to spare. As I left, my hands were literally shaking (I was panicking and holding the pencil real tight at the end), and I couldn't get my heart to slow back down.
When I came home, I couldn't really answer any questions with words, mostly just "hhhhhmmm....mmmm...." Thank goodness of awesome roommates. Abby took me out to Texas Road House, which in my world, is equivalent to heaven. And we even convinced a couple friends to come with us.
I won't find out the results for about 4 weeks but I am not going to stress between now and then. I studied all I could and if I have to take it again, I am finding a new profession. :)
