All done, but for the license.
Assuming I actually passed.
Today I completed my Part IV NBCE Board Exams. It was a weekend full of stress and anxiety. I took the Radiology portion on Friday. That seemed easy. Maybe it was all the studying I put in the week previous, or maybe WSCC over-prepares their students for boards. I don't know and I don't care. The questions seemed pretty straight forward and the consensus was after the exam, that overall it was fairly easy.
Today I took the OSCE* portion. Again lots of stress and anxiety, and again after the 2.5 hr exam, it seemed pretty straight forward.
In 8th or 9th Quarter, we took an OSCE, which was structured very much like this one, and it was 10 x's more difficult. And then in 11th Quarter we took another OSCE that was even harder, but not structured the same. So by the time we graduate, we have taken 2 'high stakes' exams that are much more difficult than this one and have to have passed them before we can apply to take the NBCE exam. The problem here was that these two OSCE's are in my past. Many months ago. And I haven't had to study for an exam in well over 6 months. So I was out of the habit of studying.
The exam itself is 2.5 hrs of 25 stations with practical questions and procedures to perform. The sequestering portion was a bit of overkill. 3.5 hrs of us locked in a room with no reading or writing material, no electronic devices, no music players, no cell phones, nothing with which to pass the time. They did allow us to bring DVDs, as the room has a DVD player, so we got to watch Napoleon Dynamite for a bit of the time. This is apparently to keep us from calling our friends who might be taking the exam at other test sites and telling them what was on the test, or to keep us from writing down the questions and publishing them. Which kinda makes sense on the surface, except when you consider that the majority of the students who were taking the exam this weekend took it on Saturday and were released a good 18 hours before we were locked in our room. I don't know how that bringing a book into the room was a threat but I was there to follow the directions. After all I paid $1100 to have this privilege.
Overall I think I did very well. Well enough to pass. But I won't know for sure until Dec 26th. That is when the unofficial scores are available. So until then I will have to sweat it out.
Now, once I get the official scores (or have them sent to the state of my choice), I can schedule to take the state licensing exam and pay an exorbitant fee. I will be an officially licensed chiropractor.
*Objective Structured Clinical Examination
Today I completed my Part IV NBCE Board Exams. It was a weekend full of stress and anxiety. I took the Radiology portion on Friday. That seemed easy. Maybe it was all the studying I put in the week previous, or maybe WSCC over-prepares their students for boards. I don't know and I don't care. The questions seemed pretty straight forward and the consensus was after the exam, that overall it was fairly easy.
Today I took the OSCE* portion. Again lots of stress and anxiety, and again after the 2.5 hr exam, it seemed pretty straight forward.
In 8th or 9th Quarter, we took an OSCE, which was structured very much like this one, and it was 10 x's more difficult. And then in 11th Quarter we took another OSCE that was even harder, but not structured the same. So by the time we graduate, we have taken 2 'high stakes' exams that are much more difficult than this one and have to have passed them before we can apply to take the NBCE exam. The problem here was that these two OSCE's are in my past. Many months ago. And I haven't had to study for an exam in well over 6 months. So I was out of the habit of studying.
The exam itself is 2.5 hrs of 25 stations with practical questions and procedures to perform. The sequestering portion was a bit of overkill. 3.5 hrs of us locked in a room with no reading or writing material, no electronic devices, no music players, no cell phones, nothing with which to pass the time. They did allow us to bring DVDs, as the room has a DVD player, so we got to watch Napoleon Dynamite for a bit of the time. This is apparently to keep us from calling our friends who might be taking the exam at other test sites and telling them what was on the test, or to keep us from writing down the questions and publishing them. Which kinda makes sense on the surface, except when you consider that the majority of the students who were taking the exam this weekend took it on Saturday and were released a good 18 hours before we were locked in our room. I don't know how that bringing a book into the room was a threat but I was there to follow the directions. After all I paid $1100 to have this privilege.
Overall I think I did very well. Well enough to pass. But I won't know for sure until Dec 26th. That is when the unofficial scores are available. So until then I will have to sweat it out.
Now, once I get the official scores (or have them sent to the state of my choice), I can schedule to take the state licensing exam and pay an exorbitant fee. I will be an officially licensed chiropractor.
*Objective Structured Clinical Examination