PCAT torture

Happy Monday Afternoon everyone!!!

Hi. So My insanely busy/stressful week is over and what I thought would be a week with a little breathing room is not looking to shape up to be any such thing. Let's just say my enthusiastic "Yay, Monday afternoon" greeting has quite a bit more spunk to it than I am actually feeling right now.

BUT, I do have to admit that having the PCAT behind me is a ginormous load off of my back!!! I ended up leaving to drive the 30-ish miles to Vermillion on Saturday morning a full hour and 15 minutes before the test was scheduled to start. You may think I'm crazy, but hey, I was nervous, didn't know where the building was located, and was having nightmares of bizarre obstacles stopping me from getting there on time. Luck would have it that I had little trouble finding the location of my prison for the torturous hours of that fateful morning. I made a friend with a fellow paranoid test-taker whose jitters steered him to a ridiculously early arrival as well. At 8:30 a.m., I found myself in a room with only eight other test takers. After the exceedingly boring and formal reading of warnings threatening us not to disclose information or cheat lest we were seeking imprisonment, the clock started ticking. Sub-test #1: Write an essay proposing a solution to a problem....a full blown essay with reliable support for my proposition in 30 minutes! Shoot, if my nerves weren't already shot, the realization that the test started with the time-pressured essay threw me for one heck of a loop. I was naively assuming that both essays would conclude the test. (ahhhhhh) But anyway, I wasted the first couple of minutes having a spaz attack and then proceeded to propose a solution that in hindsight appears completely and utterly absurd. Granted, I can write, but I'm a bit lacking in world-problem solving skills. I did survive that first essay writing frenzy, and the second that timer went off, Ms. Proctor lady, without looking up from her very unstressful reading and without any emotion or pity for us suffering souls, said very bluntly, "turn to test 2 and begin." WHOA! Like not even a minute to take a breather. I was expecting instructions or a simple comment to lighten the mood...anything but an IMMEDIATE ticking clock. But, with no other option, I plunged into the world of verbal analysis which of course included oodles of words I had no idea even existed. What's the point of knowing them when no one in their right minds speaks them anyway? When the stupid timer beeped again, I had to shift my mind to biology knowledge. I spent that 30 minutes wracking my brains trying to recall bits and pieces of anatomy lectures that I had long since shoved to the corners of my brain. And when the buzzer nearly scared me out of my chair, it was reset before I had time to blink to pressure me through a chemistry section that stressed every cell of chemistry knowledge I have inside me....and even some that I'm pretty sure I made up (I have not had the second semester of organic chemistry yet....).

And then....... praise the Lord, a break!! Ten glorious minutes to use the restroom and walk and breathe. I left the room and wandered around the rectangular building, aimlessly taking laps. The 10 minute break ended much too rapidly and I found myself tripping through a shaky solution to a second global problem in essay number two. I should note at this point that I had successfully dulled four #2 pencils. With writing down, it was on to reading comprehension. Now granted, I LOVE to read. I voluntarily read all of the time. I chose to get lost in novels rather than television regularly. But they pose the most horridly boring anecdotes and factual articles in those stupid tests and then ask questions that I swear make you second guess everything you just read. I was sick of testing at this point and spend precious seconds debating which of the four theme choices was actually accurate or if the test takers even gave me a correct option. I beat that rude timer though and mustered every ounce of thinking power I had left to begin the final test: quantitative analysis - no calculators allowed, mind you. I utilized skills I relearned by tutoring middle school kids at the library this summer. I was shocked at how years of geometry, trigonometry, and calculus could diminish my knowledge of how to solve fraction, logarithmic, and multiplication and long division problems by hand. I will admit that I blindly guessed on a calculus question or two (My brain discarded that information 4 years ago after I took it as a senior in high school). I nearly ran out of time and just took wild (we're talking look at the answer sheet and pick my favorite letter) guesses for a couple of questions that required too much computation and time for my exhausted brain cells to handle.

And when that terrible timer went off this time.....FREEDOM!!! Four hours after that test began, it was finally over. I grabbed my bag and booked it out of there. It will be six long weeks of waiting before my scores are mailed to me, but I'm hoping in the meantime, that the stress was worth it and I'll be able to put my PCAT study book away in a closet for good (or possibly sell it to any brave soul who decides to take the test :)). I drove straight back to Yankton and without even returning to my room, went to the gym and got dressed for our afternoon volleyball game. We won the game, but as if a testament to the stress of the day, it took us 5 painful sets of point-for-point competition to do it. Wanting nothing better than to sleep and not think about anything after the game, I instead spent some time with my mom and then got ready for the fall formal. I danced away the evening and had a blast doing it....it was a great ending to a very long stressful day.

And that brings me to Monday afternoon, I am behind in all of my classes because I spent last week studying for the PCAT, so I am playing catch up hardcore right now. As Dr. Wu, my Organic chemistry professor, wisely says, "Falling behind is Death!" I am on the verge of "death"...

Have a great week!