You'll Be Happy to Know...

I am now a certified literacy instructor within the state of Idaho!

I received my Idaho State Literacy Assessment standard II and III scores today (now that's a mouthful!) and can happily say I passed. Unlike most testing situations for me, I was quite worried about these tests. You see, I took the courses for these tests last fall while I was pregnant. I was so paranoid about going into early labor (HA HA -- in my dreams) that I didn't register to take the tests at the end of the semester. I figured I'd take them in March (at the end of winter semester) but being affected with Mommy Brain busy with a new baby/sending my parents on their mission/taking care of a big house I completely forgot to register. So, summer semester it was.

I registered near the beginning of the semester and then never thought about it again. It came down to the day of the first test, and me feeling completely unprepared, I sat down to cram whatever I could into my exhausted little brain (this test also happened to fall on the same day of the semester that everything -- no joke, everything -- was due). I was running on less than four hours of sleep and had been up since five a.m. I looked through my notes and prayed I could remember a semester's worth of content so I could pass and get it over with. I also had the extra pressure of paying an extra $50 to retake the dumb test if I didn't pass. I was nervous and shaky, but I got through it.

Standard III was two days later, so I being a diligent an exhausted student, went home and crashed for the next two days. By the time the day of the next test rolled around I still hadn't done a thing to study. This time, I knew if I didn't pass it was just because I was totally lazy rather than being just plain pressed for study time.

Luckily though, we now know the end of this story and that it's good! I attribute my good fortune to two things. First, I absolutely love the field of literacy (I've even said that if were to ever go back to school to get my master's it would be something to do with literacy) and soaked up all the information I could during my literacy classes. I know the Spirit helped me recall the knowledge I already had tucked away somewhere in my brain. The second bit of help came from the test format -- multiple choice guess. Easy peasy. (And, just in case you wondered...When I took Standard I, the state was using a pilot version of the multiple choice test alongside the original, complete write-on, test version. You've really gotta know your stuff for essays! And I did -- I got a perfect score. I don't think I would have stood a chance with these two tests had they been write on, so it's a good thing they weren't!) I've now got two less hoops to jump through, then graduation HERE I COME! Yay!!