The Code Crusader

Before this, my last post was about the certification exam that I've been doubting to take. After three days of posting that blog, I decided to take the first part of the exam that would be held in November. One of my friend, Kutch, who's been reviewing and handling the "technology" for more years has been urging me to take it with him. I guess I would consider him as one of the people who believes in my skill and wanted me to take the exam with him. After weeks of reviewing, I finally finished reviewing our manual, my friend on the other have been reviewing other materials and test exams on the net while I only relied on the "manual" and a "braindump" so I could get some overview of how the questions would look like and where I should really concentrate.

It was already November when I finished my so called review that I was doing whenever I'm at work and totally stopped reviewing less than two weeks before the first-part exam. I also asked my supervisor to put my two day's-off before the exam so I could re-scan my materials. I've been relaxing for days thinking "ok, I'll just re-scan my materials on my day-off" which was kinda great since I could relax my mind. Now the bad part was, on my first day-off I decided to slack off thinking I could review the next day which was a bad decision. Night came on my first day-off, my supervisor told me one of our teammates got """sick""" *note the triple quote*. You see, that person isn't really good on what we are responsible to do in our work that's why I got really irritated when my supervisor asked me if I could render duty the next day. It was not my supervisor's fault but our teammate who reported he got """sick""". You could just imagine how I rushed to review and re-scan my notes and didn't even sleep which I think might really affect my exam results. Exam day came and with 4 hours of sleep, I went to the examination place and saw other people who will also take the exam. After 30 mins of waiting, Kutch called me asking instructions how to get there. After we meet in the place, the proctor asked all of us to come in.

The exam has two versions, maybe intended to be distributed in a manner that seat mates would have different versions to avoid cheating. While answering the exam, I was glad that I know most of the answer to most of the questions but was really disappointed when I saw some questions that I know I could have answered if I reviewed the parts that didn't interest me. I was telling my self "sh*t, I should have reviewed that one. I know this one's easy but sh*t, I messed up the chance." While answering the remaining questions, I was praying to God to pass me even with a low score since it was my fault and then next time I'll review really hard. I finished really fast and noticed Kutch was still answering and most examinees are also busy with their exams which made me think "My God, there might be something wrong because I finished quite fast." Kutch also noticed it and told me about it after the exam.

While walking in the university where the exam was held, Kutch and I were talking about the questions where we got no idea at all and some of the questions where we got confused. We were saying "Dude, were dead." Realizing that there's a very thin chance we could pass.

Fast forward, after 1 month of mental torture that I wasted lots of time, slacked so many times, and will be wasting thousand of pesos the exam result was emailed. And God, I was so suprised because I PASSED! God heard my prayers during the exam :P So I told him again that I'll keep my promise and will review, study hard, and learn a lot from my mistakes and do what I need to do to be good at the exams. My friend on the other hand failed it. He was really close in passing the exam when all the while I was thinking I'll be the one failing it and he'll pass it. I know he's quite frustrated even if he's smiling since he's boss knows about the exam while mine doesn't have a single idea I was reviewing for it. I told him, "Dude, I believe you can do it. You got lots of experience and most of the questions are really quite weird." He then told me he'll just re-take it with the 2nd part. I wish the best for him. So for now, while the 2nd part is not scheduled yet, I study hard to be able to earn that certification. Thank you God.