Almost done

Literally and figuratively. My brains are well cooked, and my trip is almost over.

We finished up around five yesterday with our lecture sessions, and today we had a four hour review/practice test session.

My cummulative Monday through Friday test scores (each day covered two chapters) were 75%. 189 of the 253 practice questions we were given I got correct.

Today, we had another 103 questions covering all of the topics (10 chapters). After studying last night, I got 83 of the 103 questions correct today, for an 81% mark.

So, I'm hoping with further study today and tonight, now that we are completely done with class proper, I'll get myself into the mid-80s or higher. I just want to comfortably pass at this point. Based on what I've seen from the other students in the class, some of which are quite bright (smarter than me, in other words), the group who administers this test doesn't want anyone doing REALLY well. Even the best students thus far have only been scoring in high 80s or low 90s.

To give an idea about what's ahead of me this evening, I have about 75 pages of handwritten notes (yes, actually, my hand does hurt) to go over, in addition to reviewing the many notes I wrote all over the two course guides. The course guides themselves, which I must also review, are almost 800 pages between the two of them. And then there's the 356 practice test questions from the week that I should go over as well, in particular the 84 I got wrong.

So, tomorrow bodes to be a terrible day in general. Since the test starts at 9am and runs through 3pm (test check-in is 8am, and they won't even let you in past 8:30am), I have to be packed and checked out by the morning, which takes away from study time. I've read through the testing procedures and they pretty much suck. It's worse than the SATs. Anything resembling looking away from your test can get your paper ripped up and yourself disqualified from the paper-based, scan-tron implemented test (ironic for an information security certification). There will be drinks in the back of the room, so you can get up and get a drink, but you have to stay at the back with it and you can't talk to anyone about any thing, lest you be found cheating. And if you have to use the restroom, you have to get on "the list". Only one person is allowed to leave the room at a time, so if someone is already out using the facilities, you have to get on the waiting list.

It looks like I will have to get up pretty early, so that I can make sure the last bit of my stuff is packed and loaded in the vehicle. Then I have to check-out, then I have to get some breakfast since I won't be able to eat for seven hours at least. Then I have to drive back to OKC for seven hours, somewhere in there getting a bite to eat.

I have to pick up the kids, too, and when I add up all the factors, I'm estimating it will be 11:30 at best before I'm at their mother's to get them. And by the time we get home and I get them in bed, it could be midnight. Then I get to do at least a couple loads of laundry so I will have work clothes, most of which has been brought with me and used (and no I haven't had time to visit the laundry mat). So hopefully sometime in the wee hours of Monday I'll get myself to bed for work in the morning. I would probably take a day off but I already know of at least one meeting I have on Monday that is pretty important.

This is all such a shame, because I have the whole rest of the afternoon and evening "free" (if I chose not to study), and there is somewhere else I'd rather be a mere five miles away. There is so much potential for what I could be doing right now that will in all likelihood go unrealized. :-(