I thought I was done studying

Yesterday morning my boss was rambling about how he's worried about his daughter's chances of getting into the colleges that she's aiming for. She's a smart kid, but apparently taking standardized tests isn't quite her thing - especially the verbal half of those tests. I found myself very nearly offering my services up to tutor her for these exams since I did very well on the verbal parts. That in turn reminded me of how my husband spent about a year teaching for one of the major exam prep companies and how they're generally always in need of new instructors. (Picture the giant light bulb of the appropriate brand lighting up over my head.)

I talked to my husband last night about what I need to do to apply. It's fairly simple. I have to fill out an on-line resume and then I have to take mini "qualifying" tests in whichever subjects I would like to teach. If I score high enough, then they will contact me for the next steps in hiring. At the moment I plan to try and qualify to teach both SAT verbal and MCAT biology. What this particular company will generally do is see that I've scored well on SAT level verbal and so they will suggest that I also attempt the GRE verbal qualifying test. Likewise, if I score well on MCAT biology, then they'll suggest that I try to qualify for GRE-level biology. And suddenly they have an instructor capable of teaching 4 topics.

The verbal exam doesn't scare me. One person has attributed my verbal ability to both genetics (my mother the english professor and grammar nut) and my Catholic school education (where we started learning grammar in the 4th grade and could fully diagram sentences by the 5th). Whatever it is, this is one area where it kind of comes naturally.

Biology, ironically, did not come naturally. I always had to work hard during my classes and labs and had to study a lot for my exams. And so, taking this biology qualifying test is kind of scaring me. Yes, I know a lot about science, but it's been a very long time since I've had to sit down and take an exam about this stuff. For the past 6ish years, all I've had to do if I didn't know something was look it up or ask the person at the next bench. I'm not quite sure what tiny details have sieved out of my brain over that time that will suddenly be needed to prove that I'm qualified to teach this subject at this level.

Which is why I'm taking the next two days to "study." My husband has handed over the MCAT prep book for me to take a look at. I really am not going to go crazy over this. It's all in my head.......somewhere. I just plan to use this time and this book to move this knowledge around in my brain from somewhere to a little closer to the front.

I'll sit down over the weekend and take the two exams and see where this leads. In the meantime, it's back to the books for me.