The Exam - part 1

Flying to New York is always going to be fun. Flying in just before Christmas for the pre-Christmas shopping means its going to be fun, and hectic. Flying in to New York just before Christmas for a friends wedding means its going to be fun, hectic and socially busy. Very busy. If you've never been to New York expect to gain 30 pounds a day trying to spend $3,000 a day. Its a wonderful place. Just a shame I was supposed to be taking an exam. So, it gets to Friday night, and the pre-wedding party has subsided and I go back to my hotel room in the Inn at Great Neck a classy hotel in a beautiful idyllic suburb of New York about 45 minutes by train that runs direct to Pennsylvania Station in the heart of New York itself. It's 1 am and I am wide awake and I decide to do some last minute cramming. By 2.30am I'm bored and tired, and I need to get up at 5am to head in to New York. I wake up at 5am, have a shower, and get dressed. I can't take my book on the train because the paperwork the NABP sent clearly forbids it in the exam hall. Likewise I don't take my cellphone. I catch the 5.45am train. I look out of the window. I can't revise so I just relax. About 6.30am the train arrives at Penn State. I get a coffee. I walk towards the exit. I bin the coffee and get a taxi to the exam hall - a well known complex the size of about 6 football pitches called the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhatten. I arrive at just before 7am. Check-in is down as starting at 7.30am. There are loads of people milling around. I get another coffee. Come 7.30am I realise that half the people are sitting some maths exam, the pharmacy crowd are downstairs. I go to the loo. I go to the hall. People are holding see-through plastic bags. I don't think I need one. I enter the hall. On the left are about 30 lines of people queuing up to register. I have my registration number, known as an EE#. I get in the line for my number. At the front people are showing 2 forms of I.D. and told to sit down. I show my passport and drivers license and registration form (with my photo on it) and am told my seat number. Someone tells me I should have taken my coat off outside. I plead ignorance and ask to leave to put my coat outside. I am told I cannot leave now that I am inside. I am told to hang my coat up near the toilets at my own risk. Fine. I go toward the toilet. I am told I cannot go to the toilet without a yellow form from a proctor. Never heard that word before. Apparently its American for pseudo-Gestapo unit patrolling the exam hall. I go to my seat. I am told I cannot go to my seat until I have been seated by my proctor. My proctor asks me to sign something and gives me a pencil. I ask for the yellow slip to go to the toilet. He gives it to me. I go to the loo. When I come back I return the yellow slip to the proctor and sit down. 7.45am. A woman at the front starts telling us rules. You may not wear a coat. You may not talk. You may not get water or go to the bathroom unless you have a yellow slip. Each proctor only has one slip, so only one person from each section can go at any time. Lots of people's hands go up. You may not wear a watch - oops I have a watch on. All your personal possessions should be in a see-through bag on the floor under your seat. I put my hand up. You may not talk when you get a drink. You may not talk about the exam during lunch-break. you may not talk about any exam question EVER, to anyone. If you have a mobile phone (sorry, cellphone) and it rings during the exam you have failed the exam. I am glad I don't have my phone. I tell the proctor I need a see-through bag for my watch. One of the Uber-proctors whispers in the proctors ear and leaves. The proctor goes up to the chap in front of me and tells him he can't wear his jacket as it has a pocket in it. He cries foul, saying it wasn't mentioned anywhere and he'll freeze without it on. He is offered to re-sit in 6 months time if he likes. He takes his jacket to where my coat is hanging up. People are arriving all the time. Some people smile at others. I think they have been studying together. I count tables. About 15 in front of me and 8 behind, plus me, thats 24. I can count about 60 rows along, but I'm guessing. Perhaps 1,500 tables, so 1500 candidates? I look at the registration area. About 30 lines and each line has numbers up to 100 apart. Hmm...maybe 3,000 candidates then. And three centres across the country. Wow, 9,000 foreign pharmacy graduates sitting simultaneously. Nah, lots of empty seats - maybe 6,000 sitting? In the UK I think about 1,200 qualified annually when I did. Here are 6,000 perhaps trying to qualify simultaneously. The girl to me left sits down. She's 9 months pregnant. She sits in a yoga position with her legs folding under her nicely. Blimey. She's Chinese. I can see her passport in the see-through bag. The girl in front and to my right in Korean. The rest of the room look Indian. 8.15am. I go to the toilet again. I am wide awake, slightly bored, and not the least bit excited or nervous about the exam. Still more people are coming in. They are soooooo clever. Why didn't I stay outside until nearer the start time? I could have had another coffee. I love coffee. The woman at the front is still going on about rules: No calculators. Just the pencil. If you don't have a pencil please ask for a pencil. If you make a mistake on the sheet you may use a rubber. The exam is multiple choice. You do not get marked down for a wrong answer so if you don't know the answer it is in your interest to guess. We are about to hand out the exam papers. Please do not touch the exam papers. We are handing out forms to sign. You must sign in English. (I can't decide if my squiggly signature counts as English - I decide to use a "new" English signature.) Now fill in the address where you want the results sent. Please date the form and hand the forms to your preceptor. I hand my form in. I have an internal debate. I put my hand up. I ask the velocoraptor for my form back. I rub out my "new" signature and draw my "normal" one over it. It looks a mess. I hand the form back. I feel stupid. In two minutes you may open your exam booklet. You may go to the toilet during the exam but you will require a yellow form. You may leave early if you wish to do so, but not in the last 15 minutes of the exam. The exam is three hours. Lunch will commence at 12.30 and we will reconvene at 1.30pm sharp. Please open your exam books... The rest of the day I will describe in the next blog entry. Farmacyst

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