meh.

the praxis I is over, for the time being anyway, and now i get to focus on preparing for the praxis II. a scan of the pII study guide makes it look like it shouldn't be too hard. the only concern i have is the reading, and i've been working on that. i won't have it all done in time, but, hey, at least i'm doing a lot more reading than i've been able to in the past. ;)

as for the pI . . . well, it was okay. i actually feel pretty comfortable with most of it. i even feel okay with what i did on the math, which is amazing considering how little the practice tests showed me i remembered. the good news is that the math section of the actual test didn't have too many of the harder types of questions that were peppered throughout the sample tests. and i made sure to underline things as i read, reread the questions to make sure i understood them and had read every word (since this was a problem when i took the sample tests), and double checked the answer and made sure that i had the right oval circled. i did that all through the test. i didn't end up with as much extra time at the end of each section when, taking the samples, but only had to rush and guess a few of the questions anyway. the bad news is that i think i tanked the writing section. i may have actually done better on the multiple choice section of the writing, but the essay, lordy.

i spent some time trying to prep for that damn essay, not that there's much prep a person can do. but i went through the sample questions and tried to create some basic outlines for them. somewhere in the middle of the 71 sample questions i had, i got frustrated every time i looked at them. i had been working my way through the easiest ones and going back to the harder ones later. eventually it got to the point where just picking the thing up made me frustrated and i gave up on it. okay, yea, that was probably a bad idea. okay, it was a bad idea. turns out the question on the test was one of the ones i had the most trouble with. first i flip-flopped on whether i agreed/disagreed. then i had trouble coming up with notes - which resulted in taking too much time trying to set up to write the damn thing. and then, while writing, i had to fight my natural writing style, which is a mix of cursive and print and lower and upper case letters (you'd have to see a sample and i don't have a scanner). finally, i never managed to get to a conclusion and didn't put in any personal experiences to support my opinion. i figure at best i managed a 3 or 4 out of 6.

so, yea, meh. i may have to take the writing part of the test over. i'm thinking, though, that being a fiction writer just isn't conducive to taking these stupid tests.

in the mean time, the test scores won't be back in time for my pII registration, so i'm taking that anyway and hoping the composite score on the pI will cancel out any possible need to take the writing section over.

i also discovered a few things from some other test takers. like we're in the fastest growing county in georgia right now. and that they'll be adding over 1500 teachers (although i'm not sure of the time frame on that). so, i'm in a good place for getting hired. also, i was told several places within the county have stopped accepting the provisional certificate, so i'm again in a good place since our city still does. at least one other lady had been having trouble trying to get information on how to go about the whole provisional certificate process, so i'm very thankful the lady i contacted was so very helpful and gave me the step-by-step process.

i'm really hopeful about this. and it looks like i might also get some school loan help if i get hired because the district has been designated as one of the needier areas. i've dusted off and revised my resume. i'll be adding my praxis scores to it when they come in. i need to fill out the application for a certified position and make sure my third reference got her letter in for me. and, actually, i think on monday i can get another one of my stellar subs to send in a referral too. i'll definitely ask about that.

really, bad essay or not, things are looking up. really. i think i just might be able to make it through all this and get myself a full time position.

and then we can seriously look into that house mcat's been talking to us about.