Clinical exam

I chose today as one of those days that I've promised will be spent reviewing things for my Clinical social work exam, the last of its kind and hopefully the last ridiculous hoop I will ever have to go through in order to someday move up in my career or get some sort of responsibility. meglett was kind enough to send me the exam's Study Guide a million years ago, only it got buried under all of our tax stuff and I just realized it's probably generating a million dollars in fees. I'll have to make sure it gets mailed back to her on Monday. Yikes. Anyway, I took the practice test once a couple of months ago and once today, and have gone from about 68% correct to 86% correct. Hooray for the practice effect!

Seriously, though, I think I've learned some things about the exam as a whole which will hopefully help my test taking: 1) The test takers assume that you as a social worker can't definitively help people, and therefore you must refer to super-duper specialists like rehab clinics and psychiatrists; 2) You should never in a million years rely on your actual work experience, because of course they want answers from the perfect world of social work idealism where you never ever have to cut corners or think on your feet; 3) If the answer isn't "refer," it's probably one of those 'start where the client is' answers like "acknowledge feelings," or "let the client change the subject;" 4) I should have taken this exam directly out of social work school so I wouldn't be tainted with foolish things like reality. Because in reality... gah, I won't even go into it.

These tests are so ridiculous and only seem to create more reasons why not to be a social worker. I mean, hello - you go and get a ton of schooling to work a lot of low-paying jobs that are not valued by society (mostly because the clients are not valued by society), and on top of that, they make it /difficult/ to do this! It is the most insane system ever. These exams cost $200 a pop because everyone knows that social workers are wealthy. And then they charge for licenses, that have to be renewed annually or biannually depending on the state. And to renew, you need a ton of continuing education credits. Which cost money. Argh.

I really believe in social work and think that social workers can really make the world go 'round, but the bureaucracy doesn't really assist that in any way. Too bad MY brand of social work idealism isn't coded onto any billion dollar test.

"Procrastination" sounds like a Fifteen song

So because I'm supposed to be studying, I have now finally gotten around to fixing all of my music in iTunes. When I got this new computer, I burned all of my mp3s from my old computer onto CDs and just dumped them into iTunes, so I had a lot of songs with messed up titles/artists, lots of songs called "Track 01" or whatever (especially all of the mix CDs), etc. So instead of doing what I was supposed to, I fixed ALL of them. And my OCD self feels SO GOOD about it!

The neat thing was that I ended up finding all of the tracks from the mix CD that whod81 made for me for the 6month anniversary of him "asking me out." There were so many sweet songs on there, from "Popstar" by The Pretenders to "Secret of Life" by The Dead Milkmen, to that "Jetpack" song that I love but can never remember the artist of. It was so thoughtful, and I remember he decorated it with hearts and stuff. So cute! I miss me some Ryan Vile BIG TIME.

That reminds me, I should put in Peas's "Recommended by LJ" mix CD, too! While I'm procrastinating, that is.

RIP Mr. Limpett

Oh no! Don Knotts died! How sad.

My friend Bucky was a HUGE Don Knotts fan.