Yesterday was my big test day. While I was in Japan, my New York State (provisional) teaching license expired. When I returned to New York after about a 6 year absence, I thought I would have no problem renewing my license, but “Oh, how wrong I was!”

Months of waiting, procrastinating, and playing run-around, I finally had my moment. And, because I am such a procrastinator, I will most likely be taking the 4 hour (with no break) examination again. Even though, I downloaded the study guide weeks ago, I barely studied it. I did manage to read through the guide at least once. Kind of a very bad example to set for the students I teach. Hopefully, none of them are reading this blog.

So how was the test? Well, to my surprise, I think that I might have passed (most likely with a score of 220[the minimum passing score]). It will be a bit embarrassed a month from now when I get my results (and I fail). I’ve told myself that if I do fail, I will study next time, and then, I will have a better idea of the test. Is there anyone reading this, believing this? No, I didn’t think so. Anyway back to the test day.

The day started of pretty relaxed, which surprised me. Having not studied, and knowing the difficulty I’ve been having getting my teaching license, I wasn’t the least bit nervous. Usually, I would be nervous in this situation (and stressed). I arrived at the testing site about 10 minutes before the doors were supposed to be opened (1pm). The test starting time was 2pm. The location of the test was at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The place was huge! The convention center is about 4 city blocks in size. The room of the teacher’s examination was about one city block (or about half a block).There were also at least 2 (possible more) other events taking place at the same time. The other events were a comic book convention and a travel convention. Originally, I thought that it was strange to have a teacher’s examination in a place with other events going on, but the convention center was actually a very good place. Inside the room, there were no distractions from the other events. The room itself was huge. I wish I could have taken pictures, but no electronic devices were allowed. All cell phones had to be collected. They (the testing administrators) really kept pushing for all cell phones to be turned it. Although I did turn in my cell phone, I am positive, most of the test takers (there must have been several hundreds test takers.

As I wrote above, the test was 4 hours long. But most of the test takers did not need the whole four hours, but those of us lazy procrastinators, we did use the whole 4 hours (without a lunch break). We needed to bring; two photo identifications that had our signature, the admission ticket, and of course, several No. 2 pencils. There were about 20 or 30 different teaching tests offered. I had to take the multi-subject test. As an elementary school teacher, the test was designed to test the testees knowledge of a variety of subjects. Once we were seated, our thumb prints were taken. The directions were read, and the test began.

Unlike student exams, the time was not divided for pacing purposes. I guess the testers felt that since we were teachers (or would be teachers), we should know how to pace ourselves. Once the test started, we could basically, start anywhere in the book, and return to any part of the book. Originally, I thought there were 150 questions because there were 150 answer spaces on the answer sheet, so I paced myself by setting the goal of finishing 75 questions by the 2 hour mark. Yes, I knew about the essay part. I thought the questions at the end would require less time to answer, leaving enough time for the 2 paragraph essay. My writing skills are poor, so I was not planning to spend any more time than was necessary. Once I reached about the 80th question, I noticed that the next page showed the directions for the writing portion of the test. It was then that I discovered that the test only had 90 questions. At this point, I had about an hour and a half remaining. It was at this point that I also started to get cramps. I think sitting for a long time, and not eating something since breakfast may have been the cause. I also started getting a little nervous.

The test seemed a little…not easy, but …for lack of a better word…reasonable. Some questions did seem easy. But, I started to worry that I (who is not the brightest person) should be struggling more with the major examination. One guy must have been stressed. He started yelling that there was too much noise going on (with people walking on the concrete floor, over the metal plates). I did find it a little noisy with the testing assistants walking back and forth, but not enough noisy to be distracting. I did find it a little annoying that the woman assigned to my area had heels on, even though the notice on the admission ticket said to wear "soft-heel shoes for the testees. I guess the suggestion did not apply to the testing assistants.

Back to the test. The only part I am positive I bombed on was the Math. Once the questions started asking about x and y axis, I was reduced to my old stand-by, “enni minni myni moe”.

I am really hoping the reason the test seemed… reasonable was me having about 10 years of teaching experience.

What about the essay part? Basically, we had to give our analysis of a students reading ability from the example given. Luckily, the example was almost identical to the example given in the study guide (the part I read on the train ride to the test). A paragraph of a short story was given with the anecdotal notes of the students mistakes, and a short dialog/transcript of the student talking about what he(she) understood about the story he(she) read. The test even gave the suggested areas of weaknesses. Basically, I did what I’ve always told my students to do, turn the question into your answer and pull out as much of the information from the data given to write the essay.

So, did I pass the test? Like I wrote above, I think I did. However, I won’t know the results until March 27th. If I failed the next test is April 8th with late registration between March 22nd and March 31st. The next tests after April are June 10th and July 22nd. Hopefully, I’ve done my share of test taking for my teaching license.