polaroid spectra/spectra soft tone film.
So it turns out that I've grossly underestimated what I need to know for the California acupuncture licensing exam and luckily, I've learned this in time to do something about it. Like sign up for a study course that will prepare me for the exam. A 15 week, 3 hours of class time and a rigorous, weekly schedule of study and practice exams kind of class, which my new acupuncturist said helped her pass the test.
With no reciprocity for practicing acupuncturists, California looks at everyone who wants to practice acupuncture as a student, fresh out of school. Oh to be that person! I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm kicking myself nine years later, for not taking the exam when I was taking all of my other licensing exams. Sigh.
At first, it was hard for me to accept what I'll need to do to pass this test. I've been lost in a bit of reverie this week and I have to get back into school head, which back in graduate school meant, study all the time. I was either in class or I was studying, only coming up for air to exericse, or go out on a weekend night. M looks back on that time as a married bachelor. He had his weekends free because I was either in class or studying and he enjoyed every minute of it.
His weekends often looked like this:
wake up whenever, have breakfast, walk across Central Park to the gym. Work out. Go to used record stores for music. Call home to make evening plans. Go to more record stores.
Moving on...I've got a plan.
I'm going to take this study class, which is perfectly offered on the day that miss A goes to the after school program. And I'm clearing all of my other commitments and obligations so that my focus for the next four months is passing this exam.
The pressure is on. I've passed all of my licensing exams in the past, but this exam is different. From what everyone has ever said, this exam is more about textbook Chinese Medicine; how much you've memorized and how you take a test.
Very different from daily practice. The language is the same, but the rhythm isn't familiar anymore because I believe, people aren't just a textbook definition. When I first graduated, I wasn't comfortable with my style of practice, which is often intuitive. I'm diagnosing, I'm looking at your tongue and your pulse. After that, I'm choosing my points based on what I think you need for that day. It's taken me a good while to get comfortable with my way of working, learned from mostly positive results and having practiced long enough to understand the cadence of acupuncture in real life.
Here's the truth. I'm a good acupuncturist but I'm not so great at standardized test-taking. I'm a good practitioner becauser I'm treating what you've come to be treated for, but not necessarily found in one of four choices on a multiple choice test.
I've learned a way to take these tests from M, (who is a great test taker), and my method helped me get through graduate school and my licensing exams. And it will help me get through this next exam, which I'm determined to pass.
With commitment towards that goal, I'll get there.
