the state test

Tuesday

I am prepared.  I know all the important stuff.  I go down to Williams Street to take my test.

I wonder if all government buildings look the same?  Bad fluorescent lighting.  Tiled floors.  Grumpy looking people everywhere.  There’s no holiday cheer to be found in this place.

I arrive about a half hour early and already the designated test room is filling up. A few minutes after being seated,  a dour looking woman enters the room, assumes the teacher-position at the front of the class, and announces, “Take everything witch you and follow me.”  She directs us to another room and we are instructed to file into our seats beginning with the first row, and filling up the seats vertically.  By the time the test starts, there must be close to a hundred people in the room.

This test, contrary to what we were told in class, is much much harder than the one I took on Sunday.  There are many obscure and tricky questions.  Like this for example:

Question:  One of the tax advantages of buying investment property is: 

Possible answers:  Of the four choices, one answer is deductions and one is shelter.  I pick shelter, but am pretty certain they are both correct.

I know I couldn’t possibly have studied longer or harder and done better.  The answers I messed up on I wouldn’t have known with any amount of studying.

Like this one:

Question:  Assume you are already a real estate broker and you want to become a mortgage broker.  How many years experience do you need?

This is a test for a salesperson license.  I will know the answer to that question if I want to become a mortgage broker. Why do I need to know that now?  It’s something I would never have studied for.

I leave the exam feeling uncertain of the result.  We are told the results (either Pass or Fail) will be posted on the government website within the next week.

So now I wait. 

Wednesday

Before posting, I check the website one more time, having already checked it about 50 times since leaving the classroom yesterday.

Relief at last!  Studying over.  Now comes the fun part.  Anyone know any brokers for me to meet?