Registration Exam

Last weekend I finally wrote the written component of the Canadian Registration exam. It was 4 hours of multiple choice after multiple choice. For some reason I expected a lot more people but there were only about 50 people writing it.

It was pretty fun to observe how serious the proctors were taking this exam. After you signed in, you had to sit in the pre-assigned desk number and you weren't allowed to use your own pencil. Only the pencil that was already on the desk was to be used. The guy in front of me had a hobbly desk and he asked if he could stick some paper under one of the corner legs. At first the woman was like, "yeah sure" but then 2 seconds later literally yelled "NO, I don't know what kind of paper you're using. Sit down, I will fix it for you later". Then someone brought a box of kleenex and of course they made an announcement that we are not allowed to have anything on the desk, including kleenex not even one sheet. haha, I found it really funny but you can tell this made some people more nervous than they already were. There were people there that were writing it for the 5th time. That is absolutely absurd.

The exam went well. Throughout the exam I felt really good about it, even with the ones that I was unsure of. Because it was all clinical based you can basically use logic to answer the questions. There were quite a few ambiguous questions, ones where there aren't a real correct answer. Every question was easily eliminated down to 2 choices and most you can say were both correct. It was really a matter of physio preference. So if I did fail the exam it would be because I didn't choose the preferred method of doing things and not because it was the wrong answer. I also found out that not every question was weighed the same. Some are worth more than other questions and they will not tell you which ones they are. Is that fair?? I'm undecided with that one. I don't understand why it matters.

During the exam all I thought about was how big those damn bubble holes were. They are definitely different than the ones at UW. My friends agreed that they were unnormally large. The next day my neck was so sore from holding my head static for 4 hours. Wow I must be getting old or just not use to doing multiple choice questions anymore. In Australia all the questions were short answer/essay and I would usually lie my head on the side and start writing. Yeah I know, I'm lazy...

So 6 weeks is the waiting period for the results...Until then I can't start working as a physio. Here's hoping that everything goes well!!! At least it's done and even if I fail it wouldn't be as bad as if I failed a course in Australia. If I had to choose from failing this or a class in Australia, this would be the choice hands down.