TEFL Test

It's two a.m. and the rain outside is starting up again, cooling off the room. I'm tired. After 14 hours of working on my TEFL certification test I have finally submitted it. Jackie and I had been discussing it over the last few days and we were convinced that the test would be multiple choice and a breeze. Based off that assumption, what had seemed like a promising job prospect, and time/money running out fast I went ahead and downloaded the test today at 11:40. I had 24 hours to finish it. It wasn't multiple choice. The first 15 minutes of the test consisted of me starring blankly at the screen scrolling up and down, up and down, page after page, after page of open-ended questions.

The online portion of Jackie's test had been completely different, but she also had an in class portion to her course, which balanced everything out. For me it was one test, pass fail - no re-tries.

I sat down and started hammering out grammar and tried to avoid pitfalls, like sentences that were using the past perfect form in the future tense smashed up against gerunds - not pretty stuff. After the grammar there was phonics, teaching techniques, other teaching stuff, critiquing a video of a guy teaching, and writing a lesson plan. I was sensitive and ill-tempered all day, which wasn't good for Jackie and me. The stress of the test being so entirely different from what I had expected along with the other stresses that have been lingering since our arrival was just too much to handle in good form. Jackie and I did escape from the house together for a quick lunch and dinner, which were welcome breaks from the computer screen, which even now as I'm writing seems to be taking on a strange quality. I probably should have gone back over everything just to double double check and maybe do some editing, but the test had been open book and I'm too tired. I don't want to sleep on it. I want it to be done. So the test has been shipped back to  the International TEFL Corporation - wish me luck.