Introduction
A Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination (CPCE) is a tool for evaluating a student’s mastery of foundational and counseling-related concepts. A CPCE has several advantages, such as providing students with comparative strengths and weaknesses feedback within the eight central areas of CPCE and facilitating the examination of students in distinct curricular sectors through the OPS MSCP application. Group work, helping relations, competent ethics and orientation, cultural and social foundations, human development and growth, and lifestyle and career development are the eight critical areas of a CPCE exam. This paper is a reflection on a CPCE exam that I took at home using the Pearson Vue application.
Level of Preparedness
In my experience, I did this exam upon the fulfillment of my core units in my counseling course. Since I was out of school for a few years, I first developed a three-month study program in preparing for the exam. In the first month, I began by studying the first two curriculum areas: cultural and social foundations and the growth and development of humans. Each of which contains a limited number of questions on the test. I then utilized the other two months to study the Helping Relationships section of the exam, which often contains the most questions. Finally, I used the last month for the remaining areas, after which I created a pretest that covered the complete exam’s subject and graded it. The goal of the pretest was to assist me in figuring out my strengths and limitations in the CPCE course.
Feelings Identified
Even after identifying and improving on my weaknesses, I still felt like I had not studied enough. These feelings included nervousness and anxiety, which led up to the exam. I was afraid of not knowing the answers, receiving a bad grade, and confusing or mistaking something, which would result in incorrect replies. I am also a competitive person and have always wanted to top my peers in every test. Therefore, failing the CPCE test would leave me depressed for quite a long time. In addition, passing this exam would guarantee that I would receive my degree, which added to my worry about the possibility of failing the test.
Description of Score and Description of Feeling’s After the Exam
Despite being anxious during the exam period, I still did my best on the test, and after one hour of completing the exam, the results were out. I scored 86 out of 136, which meant that I got past the minimum passing grade of 70 out of 136. After bypassing the minimum level score, I still felt intimidated and frustrated by the thought that I would have attained a much higher score if I had worked a little more on my weak areas.
Identified Areas of Struggle
Research and program development and group work were the topics that I struggled with the most from preparation to the exam period. Class attendance inconsistency when these subjects were being taught was the main reason for these difficulties. During the class sessions, the instructor demonstrated the idea of working in groups with other students by assigning them a task from the same discipline and asking them to work in groups. Additionally, he instructed research on quantitative and qualitative study designs, which was essential in understanding the topic of research and program development. However, because I was not in school, this concept was challenging and nearly impossible for me to grasp. I discovered that a student’s number of absences and their final course grade are highly correlated.
A Description of Plan to Improve
The first plan to improve my strengths and weaknesses was to start attending at least 50% of my classes in the coming semesters. In class, I could also obtain the advice and direction I require to pass my exams. Secondly, I joined one of the already-formed class discussion groups on the group work topic. This group helped me overcome my lack of confidence and improve my listening, speaking, and thinking skills. Thirdly, I chose an appropriate study design in the research and program development area and read more about the previous studies and related theories in the CPCE course. Additionally, I went through the qualitative and quantitative research assignments provided when I was out of school.
Description of Progress with Supervision Goals
I have noticed a significant improvement in my overall academic performance since making regular class attendance a habit. Initially, lessons have aided me in connecting disparate topics. Thanks to class lectures, it is now easier for my brain to make connections between the prescribed reading and previous class meetings, and these connections have proven to be learning foundations (Al-Kindi & Al- Khanjari, 2021). Second, group discussions with classmates have proved to be a successful tool in ensuring and maintaining the success of my academics. Also, improving on the research and development topic has improved my research skills, especially from the lecturer’s examples and real-life application concepts. I have also developed the capacity to anticipate exam questions courtesy of approaches and ideas emphasized by my lecturers in class during these lessons.
Conclusion
In conclusion, passing an exam necessitates preparation and usage of resources and is also indirectly connected to a candidate’s confidence level. Embracing confidence in the exam helps dismiss all doubts brought about by fear and uncertainty about the topic. Therefore, the more equipped and prepared the students are, the more optimistic they become. It is also absolutely crucial for students to regularly attend classes. This assertion means that missing a class should be a rare occurrence, an entity that occurs mostly once or twice in an entire semester. Missing a class more than these times impedes the grasping process of the candidate and adversely affects their subjects’ performance and grades in general. A condition to success in any undertaking is ‘‘showing up,” and attending classes are not an exception (Al-Kindi & Al-Khanjari, 2021). Additionally, the refusal to attend classes by students is one way of sacrificing all opportunities offered to them in the classroom.
Reference
Al-Kindi, I. R., & Al-Khanjari, Z. (2021). Exploring factors and indicators for measuring students’ performance in Moodle learning environment. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 16(12), 169.