My Praxis Experience....

I'm sitting here at my desk trying to figure out what to write about for my first blog when I look up and see my Business Ed Praxis score report I received in the mail yesterday. I had been working at the Webb City Jazz Festival all day Saturday so I didn't get to look at the mail until late in the day. I had been expecting it all week since the Praxis website showed February 9th as the date that the score reports would be mailed for those who took the January 12th test. At first I couldn't bring myself to open it to see if I had passed or would I have go through that "wonderful" experience again? I finally opened it.......

That test had been a concern in the back of my mind ever since I applied to the MAT program over a year ago. My concern stemmed from the fact it had been several years since I had taken any type of business class and had never taken a vocational business class. I was reminded again by Dr. Sawyer at Missouri State University that he was going to make it a requirement before I started student teaching. Missing the summer workshop because I was in Wisconsin working when my family made the decision not to move but stay in Webb City due to the tragic death of a family member only delayed the inevitable and that was that I would still have to take that test.

I decided to get a couple of study guides and sign up to take it in January because it was between semesters and I would have time to study for it and not worry about school work. Well it sounded like a good plan to me but I had forgotten that I am a procrastinator by nature and January 12th was approaching fast. The week before the test I set down to cram by going through the two study guides and downloading a retired test from the internet. After taking the practice tests and doing surprisingly well on them tempered my anxiety somewhat. The only area I appeared weak was on the Vocational Business section which unfortunately had the most questions. My 25 plus years of work experience in the business sector especially accounting appeared to be paying off.

Then I got sick on Thursday and was up most of Thursday night and all of Friday night. So I'm thinking - here we go again. I decided to go through with the test since it was too late to cancel and I'd already paid for it. I remember not being able to concentrate and my eyes were really tired so I spent most of the time up close and personal with the questions so that I could read them and they wouldn't be blurry. There were four people taking the Business Ed test and I was the first done with about five minutes to spare. I left that room shaking my head and wondering what did I get myself into? Normally I can remember questions and answers but I couldn't remember a thing. I told my wife when I got home that I probably only knew about 50% of the questions and hopefully if I got about half of the other questions through my "educated" or "common sense" guesses then maybe I would pass.

Now you see why I was so nervous and anxious about opening the Score report. Well I finally got the nerve and was extremely relieved when I saw that I wouldn't have to go through that experience again!