WARNING: RANT BELOW

So Saturday I had to take my certification test, the Praxis II. For the past 2 months, I've been studying furiously in order to freshen up on my Literature, Grammar, etc. I had even created this nice little flashcard book with literature words and their definitions, Literary Periods, Authors and their famous works, and any thing else that I thought might be tested via the practice book. I had memorized the literary periods and the major authors who wrote and what they wrote; literary and grammatical terms; and had even read the major summaries of works which I was unfamiliar with or had not read. I had taken 2 practices tests, one which was a former test that ETS had retired, and on both of the tests, I scored in the top 89th percentile, meaning that I easily passed the Virginia standards. Although I don't think I was overly confident, I did feel well prepared and wasn't very worried or stressed over the test. Maybe I should have been.

The test was insane. There were ZERO questions on any literature earlier than like the 17th c. There weren't any questions even on SHAKESPEARE!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Most of the questions were about authors and works of which I have never even heard of. Keep in mind, this test is supposed to determine if you are qualified to teach English Literature at the secondary level. There were very few questions about any of the terms that I had studied, which were recommended by the study guide book. In the other 2 tests I had taken, I was able to finish both in about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This test took me 1 hour 50 minutes. I was so frustrated by the time I left...GRRR....Although I won't know my score until the middle of April, but it isn't looking good. I guess I'll just have to wait and see and take it again.