It is the calm before the storm! It is the Sunday before fall quarters at the University of Washington and Seattle Central Community College (SCCC for short) commence! I had a few misadventures at SCCC on Friday, but in the end it turned out well enough (I think.)
Friday morning I leapt out of bed and, after a week of studying factorials and quadratic equations to review my high school math concepts, I was going back to SCCC to retake the Compass placement test for mathematics. I had performed abysmally on my first try at the test (If the thought, "who needs to study for this?" ever pops into my head again, I'll know better.) I had placed in Math 098, which is essentially algebra 2. While teaching at Kumon and studying for the GRE have given me a firm grasp of mathematics concepts ranging from K-8 to college algebra, I had forgotten to review high school math. As I now know, the Compass test feeds the user harder questions for every question answered correctly, and easier questions for every incorrect answer. Due to this egregious, but totally reasonable manner of testing, I never got a chance to show off my skills with complex numbers. Instead, I placed in a level I accomplished when I was 16. Damnation.
But why worry? The placement test could be taken again for a small $17 fee, and I would certainly place at a higher level this time around. Placing even one course higher would earn me the prerequisite necessary to take the elementary school teacher math course offered this fall at SCCC, which I had only recently discovered.
I was nervous, but confident when I showed up at SCCC that afternoon. This soon vanished when I was told that I needed to wait 90 days before retaking the compass test. I asked the receptionist (pleadingly) if there was another way. She told me I could talk to Mr. Appleton, the head adviser, who could waive the waiting period. I dashed off to his office down the hall, but he was out for the day and the entire office was closed. This was a significant setback, but I had other things to accomplish at the community college that day, and I went about doing them. My next step in becoming a full-fledged student at SCCC was to show my transcript to the lady at admissions and prove that I had taken a course in English composition, which would opt me out of the English writing Compass test. The admissions lady told me that my English & Literature course did not count for composition, and neither did my numerous scriptwriting courses. Furthermore, there was no proof of graduation on my official transcript. I am still not sure why I would need proof of graduation to apply for classes at a community college. In any case, I left the Capitol Hill campus completely enervated and bummed out.
When I arrived back at my apartment, I immediately set out to make things right. If I couldn't prove I had graduated from RIT on my transcript, well then damn it I WILL BRING IN MY DIPLOMA. If my transcript couldn't opt me out of the English composition course, then damn it, I will bring in my GRE writing scores and barring that, I will take the damn placement test. So, I made an appointment with Mr. Appleton for 9am Monday; the day that my math class would in theory begin. I then set about e-mailing the professor of the math class and explaining my situation. She, in her infinite benevolence, told me that she would waive the prerequisite and that she would send me a link to the syllabus.
So now, after all that, my Monday morning plan is to meet with the head adviser to sort out my English composition nonsense. After that, I'm going to buy the math textbook and notebook that I need for class. Then after Kumon, which I will now have to skip out of 2.5 hours early to make this class that I can't afford to be late to, I will hop the bus back from Greenwood to Capitol Hill for my first math class. Really, my first college class in four years!
As for my UW classes, they are set to begin on Wednesday. I am still on standby for both the geology and geography classes, but I am hopeful that I will be accepted into them and that I will be taking 15 credits of prerequisite goodness this fall quarter.
Tomorrow morning I will behold my test scores for the WEST-E exams from earlier this month. Dear God I hope I passed. I can recover from almost anything else so long as I passed this exam.
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