Praxis 2

      Well as many of my friends and family have noticed, I have been a bit MIA for pretty much this entire summer, which has been so hard for me because summer is one of my favorite times of the year. What have I been doing? Well let's see, I've been working on the seemingly endless piles of homework and studying for the major state exam Praxis 2..blah. Of course I did take the 4 days off to go to Vegas (which was so worth it!) but other than that it's been work, work, work. So now that i'm slowing down a little but I get to tell about my little adventure in the studying world and the eventual happy ending. Sorry, be prepared for a longer post and no pictures! But really, who would want to see pictures of me studying?
 
       Like I said I have been doing homework pretty much non-stop, but also had to study for this huge state certification exam that I've been told by almost everyone I know for years that hardly anyone passes the first time. My counselors were even telling me to probably sign up for it twice just because it was likely that it would take at least that many times to pass it. The Praxis 2 is an exam that covers every topic such as social studies, economics, math, science, reading and language arts as well as pedagogy (teaching techniques). It is incredible how much information you need to have memorized, I practically re-wrote a 300 page book while studying.

         During the time I've been going to school full time I have managed to balance full-time school, Bobby's school, Kate and my other projects just fine..but once it hit July and my test was on the 27th, it hit me that I could no longer try and fit everything in anymore and that I honestly needed help. So as much as it killed me, I had to have my mom and sister help watch Kate during the day for a few hours and have Bobby watch her at night so that I could fit in studying this much dreaded exam. The reason I say it killed me is because I hated not being with Kate all of the time, I absolutely love to have her with me where ever I go. So to see her for only an hour a day some days was really hard for me, and made life and school seem so much more stressful. Plus I was noticing the affect of the lack "mommy/daughter" time with Kate too, every moment I did have with her she would want nothing but to be held by me and anytime I tried to put her down or give her to someone else she would panic and hold onto my neck for dear life. It made it so difficult to leave her when I felt like she thought I was abandoning her. But I have to say I was so so grateful for the fact that I had such wonderful help from my mom and sister during the day while Bobby was at work so I could get more studying done. I honestly don't know what I would have done without Bobby, my mom and my sis helping me out as much as they did, as I still had several papers to write on top of studying, so they were truly life savers!

              The day before the test I took another practice test and did pretty good, but still got stumped on a few questions, so that was obviously unsettling. But by this point I was so exhausted that I just reviewed everything and thankfully Bobby was there to calm me down and give me a blessing that night. I just have to say how grateful I was for Bobby during this whole thing, He was right there to help me with Kate and make dinner when I was too busy studying and honestly he was even just there to let me vent my frustrations while cheering me up or calming my nerves. I just love him :) So yes he helped me stay calm the night before and we went to bed so that I could dream of the test all night, it was great.

        The day of the test I dropped Kate off at my moms and drove to the test center and took the test which was only 2 hours long thank goodness. During the test, I was incredibly nervous of course but I could tell that my prayers were being answered as I was able to remain calm and my mind was able to miraculously recall and organize the massive amount of information I had studied. Although there were a few that I was nervous about, I still finished the test with 15 minutes to spare which gave me enough time to check over the answers and fix anything. I honestly was just so scared to be finished because I knew that my scores were coming soon. That was the good thing about the test was that I didn't have to wait to find out my score as it was multiple choice so I could know immediately if I passed or not.

    After I finished the test I clicked the submit button and could literally feel my heart pounding hard against my chest as I waited for the results. All I needed was a 150 to pass the exam and then I could be done with this test forever. If I didn't pass I would need to spend another $130 and study while trying to write 22 papers in a month, which was something I didn't even want to think about. It honestly felt like forever to get my results but when I did, I had to stare at the screen for a minute for it to sink in. The results? 183!!!! Woohoo!!! I passed!!! Not only did I pass, I actually received the Recognition of Excellence, meaning that of all of the people who have taken the Praxis 2 I scored in the top 15%. It was the most amazing feeling of accomplishment as I stared at those scores knowing that I had done it and I passed the exam that not many pass on the first try. It was an even sweeter feeling knowing that I would finally get to spend time my sweetie and baby girl again because goodness I've missed them!