Test day

First things first: I PASSED!

Thank you for all your prayers, I used them all! In fact, I got a really nice end-score, which I'll talk about later...


     




     
I had to leave my wonderful hotel room, how I loved it! AIR CONDITIONING! You can see my study materials strewn about. This hotel contributed to my passing, because I did not have to commute, and could spend that time studying and sleeping. And I did only those two things, besides eating. Of course, the price of this education shot way up with hotel plus restaurant food every day.



     
Test day, 7:30 AM Saturday. The streets of downtown Dortmund are empty except for the market which is quiet with the people setting up their wares.



     
My hotel is on the right, the Catholic Center  (my school) straight ahead.



     
EMPTY!



     
This is the fountain the kids have been playing in every blistering hot day.



     
Passing the church and the Catholic Center....this is where my favorite bum sat and said hello to me every day, and Guten Appetit when I had take out in my hand.



     
My favorite Doener bar, which is Turkish Gyros, Germany's favorite fast food. At 7:30 AM, the meat is still frozen, see how light in color it is?



     
I hate this street. It's the main drag through town and so crowded with people it's difficult to walk, which I did almost every day. 7:30 AM, no people at all!



     




     
Back to school....



     
I have to walk through this passage to get into the church/school "square."



     
One last look at my hotel.



     
Going thru, I can see a blaze of orange, my fellow students. Obviously unable to sleep in, cuz it's only 7:30 and the doors open at 8.



     
The square is so pretty.



     
The church is way better on the inside, and it's open to the public 7 days a week, all day long.



     
The ominous entrance to the Catholic Center.


     
Looking up to the top floor, the symbol of our organization is in the window. 



     
So, here's how it went....

***

It was an agonizing day, emotionally ("surely I'll fail"), physically, ("is it OK to sweat all over the CPR dummy?") and mentally ("how can I keep all this stuff in my head!?").

The start. Waiting at 7:30 for them to unlock the doors:



I was numb. Beyond anxiety. Unable to make small talk with the rare students who were kind to me.

ALL THE WAITING! We waited around most of the day.  Because there were only 3 test rooms and 2 teachers per room and 25 students, 12 teams. Little Linus and I were team #12, ugh.


Linus was stressing out. The first thing he said to me was, "Where are your rescue clothes?" I said, "We have time." He said, "I'd feel better if you were ready." So, I went and put on my clown pants and safety boots for him, after asking him, "Are you mad at me?" "No, do I seem mad? I"m just nervous!" OK then.

On our way to our first hands-on task, he said, "Think on the gloves!" I said, "I'm thinking nothing else but gloves right now!" with a little stressy whine in my voice. Cuz if you walk into the room without gloves, you're done.

Ironically, Linus had glove issues all day. He fought and fought to get them on, but he was so nervous, his hands were soaking wet. He made the teachers wait and wait as he struggled. I said, "Wrong size?" He said, "No, I'm just so sweaty!" Poor Linus.

On our last task of the day, I said, "OK Mr. Gloves, this is the last time I stand here and watch you trying to put gloves on!" *snicker* Mean of me to tease him, but he was pretty bossy with me and I needed to vent.

OK back to it.

The written test is a typical German government-issued test, so hush-hush, we are not even allowed to see it after we are finished, we never know what we did right or wrong. All of them, like my husband's SAT's, are graded by two teachers and I assume they're incinerated afterwards.

I've got a Bachelors of Sciences degree and this test is exactly as difficult as those at UW. My brain is in a daze two days later, recovering.

We had 75 minutes to answer 50 questions and I needed all 75, because of my language barrier. One kind teacher came to me and said, "If you need help with the German just ask." I picked up my hilighter and said, "I'm marking any unknown words in yellow."  There were so many eventually I gave up and did my best to guess. I was careful not to ask about medical terms, that would be cheating. I just asked about "simple" German words even children know. For example I know the German word for "always" but in these tests they use a fancy word for always that I'd never seen before. And that is crucial to understanding the question.

I felt pretty good about the written test. I felt confident about half.

Then the waiting commenced, again. At lunch everyone was stressing out, asking each other what they wrote. Linus was too stressed to eat. I dived into the pizza, because I was dealing with the stress and ate exactly 4 pieces of pizza minus crust (I'm on a crust-free diet). I was astonished when I was called over to join a group of students where they ate their pizza. This was the first time I was shown they can be personable! I happily joined them as they discussed how badly they'd screwed up.

They were suffering enormous test anxiety, which put their mental capabilities down to a non-German like me, I imagined.

So, it's 2 PM. I'm beyond worry, I cannot stress. I stare at the carpet for literally hours, rehearsing the tasks over and over. Step by step. Do this, this, this....

Since I've done this before, for the lower level, I know that you can be perfectly prepared and still fail due to a tiny error that they deem life-threatening.

Linus said to someone, "I'm mostly worried about Lytha's CPR with me (2-person CPR)." *sigh* I was too. He never learned to trust me, and I get it - we only practiced a handful of times, not enough to become confident.

Then it was our turn to do CPR and after he struggled with his gloves  (lol), HE SCREWED UP. He lost trust in me and reached over the patient and turned on the Defibrillator, though that was my task, and it was too early to turn it on, I wasn't done attaching the pads. I was insulted, but knew he was just freaking out.

After, he apologized. That was nice of him.

***

Hours pass. I text J, "I feel good about my written exam."


***

Then they called team 12 and as always, you must throw a die or pull a card and I pulled a 4.

A FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After, I texted J and said, "I drew a 4. Do you know what that is?"

He texted back, "Motorcycle helmet removal?"

YES. God is cracking up at me.

I've been here three times, and every time, I've pulled a 4. The first time I failed, then I had to come back, and I pulled a 4 again. This time, a year later, I pull a 4. WTH! I was tempted to ask if I could see the rest of the cards to see if they all had 4s on them! *lol*

I was ready. I'd practiced. And how awful would it be, if my third try failed!!!!

But I did it. All your prayers and candles....

What was my partner Linus' "single random task"? He got blood sugar! No way. The entire class erupted in disgust when he revealed it to them later, cuz Linus is really good, and blood sugar is one of the simplest tasks. But I caught his error, and told him about it later. He was so nervous! Thankfully his error was not life-threatening.

My next test was "alone" CPR. Something totally new to me. I was so insecure about it!

Then I had to give baby CPR and did fine, but when Linus did it, with me helping, he screwed up again, and forgot a step. I whispered it to him, and he did it, and thankfully we're allowed to help each other, not penalized for helping.

Then it was time for Linus to do single CPR and the teacher came to me and called me by  my full name which no one does, except for my neighbors who cannot say my name, and said, "You are excused." I stood there, eyes wide, wondering what he meant, if it meant I failed." He said, "You may leave the room." I sighed, "OH!" OK, and as I left, I thought of Picard saying, "Dismissed!" And the German for dismissed is "Wegtreten!" but he didn't say either. Hm!

Did I fail? Why no commentary? I sank to a low state, emotionally.

After, commisserating with the others, I asked Axel how he did. He said, "I'm beyond fear."

Jara said, "I'm dyslexic! I couldn't even read the test properly!"

Marc, "Lytha, can you say the word "Benzodiezapine" again?"

"Benzodiezapine."

He rolls back in his chair in euphoric cackles.

WTH.

"Say it again!"

"No." I know I say it right, I probably come from the land they were invented in. Hrmph.

OK, that's it for today. The next bit of this tale is the conferences where we learn what we earned, and the heartbreak that ensued.

     
SO HAPPY I got ONE photo of little Linus, here on the left. He is brilliant and engaged and confident (and annoys the teachers with his excessive questioning). I'm so glad he was my partner. We were never friendly, but we worked great as a team.



     
This giraffe image greeted us on test day, saying, "Good luck to you all!" Hrmph.