Death By MSAT

When I moved to California, with only a Bachelor’s Degree that I earned in Idaho, I had to do a few things in order to get a California credential. I had to take a few tests, and then they gave me an “emergency” credential that was good for…2 years? I don’t remember the exact amount of time I had, but before that credential expired I had to do some things. When I talked to the advisor at Stanislaus State, in Turlock, she told me I could either a) take these 9 classes, or b) pass the MSAT.

Well. The obvious choice was to take the test. So that ‘s what I decided to do, and then I proceeded to forget all about it because I had loads of time. I let it go until I finally registered for the very last MSAT offered before my credential either had to be renewed, or it would expire.

Let me back up a little bit. For some reason, I have always been super good at standardized tests. NO BIG DEAL, ever. I never worried about them, and I always went in and blew them out of the water. In college, I had to take the National Teacher’s Exam just to get admitted to the ElEd program at LCSC. The night before the NTE, we had a group date, and I didn’t get home until 2 a.m. At 7 in the morning I was sitting at a desk, with my two super sharp number 2 pencils, ready to take the test. I remember thinking how tired I was, and thinking it might have been a bad idea to stay up that late partying (Mormon style) the night before. And then I scored in the 96^th percentile in the nation. One of the tests I had to take in California to get credentialed was the CBEST, and when I got there to take it, I chatted with some of the other test takers before the test, and several of them mentioned how this was the 5^th or 6^th time they had taken the test, just trying to pass. And in I went and had no trouble knocking it out of the park. So tests were never anything I took very seriously.

Enter MSAT. I decided that just for kicks I’d go over to the Stan State bookstore and pick up a study guide book for the MSAT. I had never studied for one of these tests before, but it was a good thing I got this book! I started looking through it about 3 days before the test, and panic set in. This test was no joke! It was over $200 to take, and it took all. day. Word on the street was that most people took the test a minimum of three times. The things I saw in that study guide had me convinced I would fail the test and lose my job. I mean, this test was supposed to allow me to test out of nine college classes! What was I thinking??

I went up to Brother Grimsman’s house, and he and Brooks gave me a blessing. Aside from that, I studied night and day and tried not to completely lose my mind.

On the day of the test I headed down to wherever the test was. Merced? Fresno? I forget. I checked in to the testing site, and was told that the first part of the test was 4 hours, and it was a multiple choice, true false type test. The second part of the test would be after an hour or so lunch break, and it would last three hours. The second half of the test consisted of eighteen essays that had to be completed within the three-hour block of time. I tell you, I went in to that second part of the test with no idea what the future held. All I know is that I put my head down and charged right in, and forgot about the entire world for three hours.

And…I passed, with a percentile place somewhere in the 90s. But ever since then, I have tried to make sure that I don’t leave things like that until the last minute! I really should have taken the test a year or so earlier, so I could have had time to retake it if I needed.