That wasn't fun at ALL.

anonemouse · February 6, 2008

I just got back from taking an employment exam for the state of Tennessee, for a biologist position with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. It was a SERIOUS exam, too, not one of those "we give you an exam just to say we did" things. There aren't any openings right now, but they keep the scores on file. They only give interviews to the people with the top five scores.

Anyway, NOT fun. Almost half of the exam was on aquatic ecology/biology (fisheries management, aquatic invertebrates, stream/lake/reservoir health, etc.). I've had a grand total of TWO courses in the last seven years that have had anything to do with aquatic ecology. There I was, trying to remember shit from the fisheries management class I took three or four years ago and the aquatic ecosystems class that I took last year. I knew some of it from those classes and from stuff I've randomly picked up, made educated guesses on some, and did eeny-meeny-miny-mo on some. The rest of the exam was on terrestrial ecology/biology, statistics, lab/field methods, and report revision. I did much better on those sections, I think.

I was SO freakin' stressed going into it, though, simply because I had absolutely no idea of what to expect. Plus, it rained like HELL here. Most of you have probably heard about the storms that hit the South last night and this morning. To get to the testing center, I had to make what would have been an hour's interstate drive under ideal conditions. It POURED the entire time. I hydroplaned several times, and came extremely close to losing control of my car once. Seriously, I've never come closer to wrecking like that. I was literally shaking when I managed to straighten the car out. Even the semi-trailers were going about 30 mph. :biggrin: Needless to say, I was a tad stressed when I got to the testing center.