Certification Exam

The drive was long and my hotel was a dump... The test was not what I expected. Despite my apprehension I really thought that passing the exam wouldn't be too tough. After all I got 87% on the practice exam and if I would have been a little more careful I would have gotten 100%.

The real thing though, was a far cry from the practice test. It was broken down in to two 75 question portions. Based on what I heard from ITE the passing range is around the 66% range. That doesn't sound too bad, and based on that alone means I would need to get 100 correct out of the 150.

I counted up those that I was pretty sure I hard right, I think there was about 50. In addiiton there was about 50 that I thought I was probably right on. You'd think that with the remiaining 50 I would get atleast a few right. So I'm not bursting with confidence but I should be fine. That said, if I don't pass I am going to be VERY PISSED. All together this thing cost me close to 600 bucks. UGH!

Feeling a bit better

Most of my apprehension about the test is gone. I'm still not looking forward to the hours in the car. I have everything I need so its just going there, taking it and coming home.

The site is getting better by the day, Bram and I have a ton of ideas. The next hurdle is getting into google's index which is only a matter of time. It looks like development wise the big challened is going to be adding comment and rating ability for users. We might have to outsource it, but we'll see. Yesterday Bram and I both agreed that it would be critical to the sites success. We also found a place to get free flyers.

If I have extra time today I am going to work on a logo for liquor connoisseur but I want to study as much as is possible for my test. First things first though, I have to finalize my time sheet. D'OH!



http://www.liquorconnoisseur.com

It's up

I wasn't feeling well at work today so I left around noon. It's about 9:15 now and I am feeling a little better but I am glad that I left work. I've got so many thingsto take care of before I leave for Pitt. Thank God I thought to take next monday off!

The exciting news is that our website www.liquorconnoisseur.com is up. Its just a basic page with no links right now but the email account is set up and I linked my adsense account to it.

It's amazing that after all this I still can't spell connoisseur. I have to look it up every time. I gave myself a scare today when I thought I actually spelled the name wrong when I got the domain. Whew.

OK It's about time I go to bed. It's been some time since I got a good night sleep.

Pittsburgh, ITE and the PTP

I leave for Pittsburgh from work on Friday. I wouldn't call what I am feeling nervous, but there isn't a better word to describe how I feel. I am taking the Professional Transportation Planner Certification exam which really means nothing at all.

Ever since college it has been important to me to become "certified" in someway. I thought it was going to be AICP but the more involved in transportation I got, the less AICP seemed relevant. That's why I was so excited when I found out about the PTP certification. Theoretically this is just as important as the PTOE and other certifications ITE gives but I don't think in reality it will give me any more credibility.

I get the impression from my boss that she thinks its a waste of time. OH well. It's important to me so thats what counts, I suppose.

Whats really got me nervous though is the fear of failing. I've always thought of myself as relatively good at what I do and assume that my knowledge is sufficient to be certified but I can't get the thought out of my head as to what will happen if I don't pass.

For one this is costing me a ton, all in all its going to be over 500 dollars, but I'll have to deal with telling my parents and friends and coworkers that I failed a test that is supposed to check knowledge of my own profession?

I did take the "practice test" ITE set up. It's a joke that i had to pay 10 or 15 bucks to take it and I don't know if I believe that the questions were representative of the actual test. After I took the practice test someone from ITE told me that the passing score was one better than 50%. I thought with those odds I can't go wrong. I double checked again though and found out that the passing score varies with each test. The CEO of ITE emailed me to say that if I get 2 out of 3 right I will likely pass. I guess that gives me something to go on.

I'll let you know.

Liquor Connoisseur gets a host

I did end up meeting with Bram yesterday and it went very well. I think we are both pretty excited about this idea and anxious to get the ball rolling. Yesterday we purchased space with a hosting account for a year. We also purchased a new email account so I have another email address now, Ryan@liquorconnoisseur.com which more than anything else, is just cool.

We want to get the site up and running ASAP, just to make sure we have the upload process and ad accounts working properly, then will build on it before we start our marketing campaign which should be fun. I'm thinking we'll have an actual site up sometime middle of next week and my hope is to have it fully functional by the end of August. Wish me luck.