Happy Holidays .. and The Bet, part Two
First off:
Happy Holidays to ALL of my friends, colleagues, clients, family and readers!
Your support over the years has been, in good portion, what's kept me going, kept me inspired and kept me focused. I am humbled and honored to have you all in my life.
Now, on to the odd stuff... several years ago, a friend of mine made a bet with me - he bet me that I could not pass the Illinois life insurance agent's exam on the first try. Now, when you consider that the exam, at that time, consisted of about 300 questions and covered everything from matters of law to types of insurance to figuring coverage costs, it was a pretty daunting challenge.
When you add into the mix the fact that I suffer from called dyscalculia, which is a type of dyslexia that applies to numbers and mathematics in general and the challenge becomes even greater.
Well, with the help of my friend Wendi Freisen, a world famous hypnotherapist and her CD on memory improvement for students, I managed to pass the test... in 38 minutes... this was, according to the head of th testing center, "an unofficial Illinois record."
I was happy.
Well, yesterday, the 21st, I took my friend up on his follow-up challenge - to pass the Illinois State accident & health insurance agent's license exam on the first try. The exam is another monster - 65 questions about everything from health, accident, Medicare, Medicaid, disability, Workman's compensation and supplementary insurances plus another 50 questions or so about Illinois state-specific laws regarding all of the above!
There was more math than on the life insurance exam, too.
However, the really big problem with taking this exam was that I went in to it with a massive, comprehensive, skull-crushing migraine headache!
And it was a bad one. A sinus headache on top of a regular migraine, to boot. My regular medications didn't even dent it. Tylenol-3... the stuff with codeine in it ... didn't dent it... and it was running into the ranges where it was threatening consciousness (which has happened only once in my life, I hasten to add!)...
Fortunately, I managed to suffer through the exam until about half-way through the second part - the Illinois law portion, when, outside the testing center, a dozen kids started a drum line using those big plastic buckets for drums!
Even though we were on the 4th floor of the office building, it sounded like they were right outside the window!
I guess the center has had this happen before, though, because sitting right there on my desk, in a neat little sealed plastic package, was a pair of green foam rubber earplugs! But even with them in my aching ears, I could STILL hear these kids slamming away on their buckets, but not quite as loudly...
The exam was timed, of course. The time allotted was about 140 minutes. This time, I finished with only about 27 minutes remaining on the clock and staggered out to the proctor's desk for the bad news.... and saw that it was the same lady who had graded my first exam there, back when!
She clicked her mouse, and, as I was gathering my stuff out of the locker (they make you empty your pockets, leave your cell phone, pager, wristwatch, everything but one piece of photo ID), she said:
"Congratulations. You passed."
My head still hurt - this was not a stress migraine - but I have to admit that I was pretty happy about the results. Not to mention being more than a bit surprised.
And again, my friend lost his bet.
I really should have put some money on this bet, instead of it merely being a gentleman's wager...!
Happy Holidays everybody.
Happy Holidays to ALL of my friends, colleagues, clients, family and readers!
Your support over the years has been, in good portion, what's kept me going, kept me inspired and kept me focused. I am humbled and honored to have you all in my life.
Now, on to the odd stuff... several years ago, a friend of mine made a bet with me - he bet me that I could not pass the Illinois life insurance agent's exam on the first try. Now, when you consider that the exam, at that time, consisted of about 300 questions and covered everything from matters of law to types of insurance to figuring coverage costs, it was a pretty daunting challenge.
When you add into the mix the fact that I suffer from called dyscalculia, which is a type of dyslexia that applies to numbers and mathematics in general and the challenge becomes even greater.
Well, with the help of my friend Wendi Freisen, a world famous hypnotherapist and her CD on memory improvement for students, I managed to pass the test... in 38 minutes... this was, according to the head of th testing center, "an unofficial Illinois record."
I was happy.
Well, yesterday, the 21st, I took my friend up on his follow-up challenge - to pass the Illinois State accident & health insurance agent's license exam on the first try. The exam is another monster - 65 questions about everything from health, accident, Medicare, Medicaid, disability, Workman's compensation and supplementary insurances plus another 50 questions or so about Illinois state-specific laws regarding all of the above!
There was more math than on the life insurance exam, too.
However, the really big problem with taking this exam was that I went in to it with a massive, comprehensive, skull-crushing migraine headache!
And it was a bad one. A sinus headache on top of a regular migraine, to boot. My regular medications didn't even dent it. Tylenol-3... the stuff with codeine in it ... didn't dent it... and it was running into the ranges where it was threatening consciousness (which has happened only once in my life, I hasten to add!)...
Fortunately, I managed to suffer through the exam until about half-way through the second part - the Illinois law portion, when, outside the testing center, a dozen kids started a drum line using those big plastic buckets for drums!
Even though we were on the 4th floor of the office building, it sounded like they were right outside the window!
I guess the center has had this happen before, though, because sitting right there on my desk, in a neat little sealed plastic package, was a pair of green foam rubber earplugs! But even with them in my aching ears, I could STILL hear these kids slamming away on their buckets, but not quite as loudly...
The exam was timed, of course. The time allotted was about 140 minutes. This time, I finished with only about 27 minutes remaining on the clock and staggered out to the proctor's desk for the bad news.... and saw that it was the same lady who had graded my first exam there, back when!
She clicked her mouse, and, as I was gathering my stuff out of the locker (they make you empty your pockets, leave your cell phone, pager, wristwatch, everything but one piece of photo ID), she said:
"Congratulations. You passed."
My head still hurt - this was not a stress migraine - but I have to admit that I was pretty happy about the results. Not to mention being more than a bit surprised.
And again, my friend lost his bet.
I really should have put some money on this bet, instead of it merely being a gentleman's wager...!
Happy Holidays everybody.
posted by Lee Darrow at 4:14 AM
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