Testing

Remember those days of yore when you would go to bed at night, dreading a large test the next morning?  Maybe you dreaded the standardized tests in grade school (CTBS or SAT or whatever) or maybe the SAT or ACT or an AP test in High School.  Or a large final in college.  Or the MCAT, FE, or even the GRE.  So many initials and so many long tests.

You would probably try to go to bed early the night before the test.  If you were smart, you would have been studying for weeks or even months prior.  If you were like me, you  might try to cram in a few bits of information the night before and hope for the best.  Eventually, though, bedtime would come, and you would fall into a restless sleep, punctuated by odd dreams involving conjugating verbs or solving systems of equations or diagramming circuits or whatever the subject of your coming test.  Occasionally your slumber would be interrupted as you started awake, fearful that you had overslept.  After a glance at your alarm clock you would go back to your uneasy dreams for a little longer.  Eventually morning would come and you would get up with butterflies in your stomach.  You would force yourself to eat a good breakfast, knowing you would need energy.  You would gather your #2 pencils, erasers, calculators, passport or other form of ID, extra paper, and whatever odds and ends were required, and head to school.

For me it seems that these test always took place in the spring.  The sweet, sharpness of the cool breeze would add to my alertness as I attempted to calm the butterflies in my stomach.  Eventually everyone would get there, details would be taken care of, and the test would begin.  After all the preparations and dread, that was the easy part.  Maybe I'm just weird, though. :)

Today I had such a test.  I am not sure if I should be proud or ashamed to say that of all tests I have ever taken, I probably studied more for this one than any other.  I almost never study for tests, but I've been studying for this one since February.  This is partly because of the nature of the test, a Hebrew Comprehensive exam.  We were to translate and become familiar with 10 narrative chapters in Hebrew Scriptures and most of our questions were to be taken from that section.  I also studied with a partner, which is something else that I almost never do.  In this case, though, the added accountability was quite useful.

So last night I went to bed after having spent most of the last two day studying Hebrew, in addition to the semiweekly sessions since February.  My dreams were indeed punctuated by a jumble of mems and beits and other Hebrew letters, all vying for precedence.

The test itself consisted of 3 sections (translation and questions on our 10 chapters, a sight translation, and a Historical Geography question).  It ended up taking me about 6 hours, and in retrospect, I don't think it was too bad.  Of course, I still don't know if I passed, but I have been assured that passing is the most likely outcome.

So, I can relax a little more.  Until I take the Historical Geography Comprehensive exam in a week or two.

Oh, and for any Hebrew scholars out there, this is one of my favorite verses from the section we translated.  English translations just don't seem to do it justice: (1 Kings 21:21)

 הִנְנִי מֵבִי אֵלֶיךָ רָעָה וּבִעַרְתִּי אַחֲרֶיךָ וְהִכְרַתִּי לְאַחְאָב מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר וְעָצוּר וְעָזוּב בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל