Archive for June 20th, 2008
A week with overwhelming blessings
It started out Sunday evening, I am feeling something different without telling my husband first of my suspicion I took the pregnancy test. After a year from my miscarriage we are finally having one again. Hopefully, this time it will get through and that our baby will be healthy and my pregnancy will be safe as well. As compared to last year, this pregnancy is not as hard at the moment in terms of symptoms. I remember last year, before I even know I was pregnant I was having chest pain, chest tightness, upset stomach, palpitations, etc. Unlike now, what I feel different is that I feel hot. Even if I just took a bath, I feel as if I have a fever. Well that is way tolerable in comparison to what I had last year. This has been in my prayers after I had miscarriage last year, that the next pregnancy would be easier, safe and that the baby will be healthy. Thank God!
Secondly, Wednesday this week, I got my result from taking the pharmacy technician test. I took it as a back-up plan in case I would not find a job as an intern pharmacist. The test was quite easy, I got an average score of 831 with the score range from 650-900. I studied a week for this and I am really happy that one hurdle has been passed through.
Last but definitely not the least, I sit in for the TOEFL iBT last May 30, 2008 in Ontario, CA. This is my first attempt for the test and I was very anxious since the requirement for the National Pharmacy Board is too high in some areas for instance in a scale of 30 we need 26 for the speaking which is around 89%. This has been the waterloo of most pharmacist intern. Thankfully, I was able to meet all the requirements and I will be able to start to work as an intern already. There are several materials that I used for this exam. I wouldn’t personally recommend it for everybody because that is just how I react when I am stressed. Books are my security blanket. To mention some of what I have are Barrons 12 ed. TOEFL iBT this is helpful as a practice test, Princeton’s TOEFL iBT is more of techniques which I will highly recommend, another is the ets official guide since it is from the test takers themselves this is good view of what is to be expected for the test, and Longmans speaking guide focused more on the speaking section. Although I have this books, I never had a chance to read everything. Well not because of time constraints, it was more of I am lazy to do so. I had two months to prepare for the test but in most days I would only put 2-4 hours a day. I think if 3 weeks of 8 hours study would be enough to prepare for this test. The reason why I had two months is because that was the only date available in our location. There are a lot of people taking the test so depending on the area one should schedule the test months ahead. Also, I studied how to type faster since in our country in the Philippines we didn’t have this subject to improve our skill. It is important to learn this since for the writing section the time is limited, it is already hard to compose an essay that is why it would be an advantage to learn how to type faster. I underestimated the reading the section, that is why after mt exam that is the area that I was worried about. During the practice test, I would often get a high score and I would even have spare time after each passage. This was totally different during the actual test. In the reading section, since this was the first area of test there were a lot of distraction since some of the test takers are just being seated and they are making noise as they test their microphone. This should be taken into consideration since I would often practice in a quiet environment. For all those taking this test, just practice a lot and put a lot prayers cause that always makes a difference and it has always been the key for me.
With all these blessings, it is really pouring this summer in CA! it is now time to look forward to our future as God has set everything for us. It is through his guidance that we will be able to achieve what seem to be impossible dreams. God is very good:)
