i passed!!

i totally winged a certification test this afternoon. i was attempting to gain certification in another subject area -- which will open doors to teach a few more subjects.

a little back story --
at one point, during my 5 year career at sam, my degree was food science and nutrition. well, that was short lived because i soon realized that i would need a masters to be able to do anything worthwhile (i.e. a registered dietitian). i was not interested in more school at that point. enter my marketing major. immediately after graduating, i started looking into getting my alternative teaching certificate through region iv (in texas, regions are what districts are to individual schools). little did i know (i didn't realize this until about 3 years after i graduated -- big thanks to my advisor, not), i was six hours -- yes, that's right, two measly classes short of a minor in family and consumer science (the big umbrella under which food science and nutrition is housed). i still have a strong interest in nutrition and about a year ago decided that it would be fun to teach a nutrition type class. i'm not talking about home ec (though the fcs certification does cover that subject), but a real nutrition/food science/food prep class. i even signed up for the test, but never went through with it -- pretty much just chickened out.

which brings me to today's exam --
i finally signed up for the exam about 2 weeks ago. i scheduled it for today because it was the last day of spring break. i went into this exam with no preparation. there was a study guide on the website, but it really talked about the structure of the test. there was very little about the material i should study -- oh, except for the list of about 3 dozen different textbooks. riiiiight. i just decided to go on common sense. i totally don't recommend this for, say, a math certification test... however, family and consumer science deals with consumer behavior, nutrition and food science, food preparation, hotel/restaurant management, child development, elderly care, sewing and textiles, interior design, etc. well -- i had a nutrition/food science/consumer behavior schooling background. i have quite a bit of restaurant and food prep experience. child development was covered a bit in my education classes. i've done a bit of sewing. so all of those mini experiences mixed with common sense -- i figured i could do a pretty decent job winging it.

still... during the exam there would be some tough questions where i thought -- crap. i just wasted an afternoon, gas, and money taking this stupid test!! then, there would be the easy ones -- yes! i am so going to pass!

so, you're given 3 hours to test. i finish in a little over an hour. i walk out and the proctor says, need a break? um... no... i'm finished. so he goes to his computer and drones on about how i'm lucky to get my results so quickly, the testers down the hall (taking a different exam, i'm sure) had to wait all morning for their results... blah, blah, blah. so, finally he prints, hands me a paper, and says congratulations! i was slightly surprised and even said "really?!" haha.

so... needless to say... i'm quite excited! and a little proud of my accomplishment. :)