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11/15/10

It's Official!


I’m officially a college student. Wow!

I’m a ton of emotions right now. Excited, nervous, anxious, happy, relieved…
It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally got my act together to start the journey that most of my peers are bringing to an end next semester. I still have a few tasks to complete before registering for classes, but going to orientation and receiving my temporary student ID made me feel so proud!
The coolest thing is that the campus is 5 minutes walking distance from my apartment. The crummy part is that since they don’t provide any childcare for single parents like me, I will be limited (for the time being) to take online courses only. I've also decided to take it slow, ease my way back in to being a student and start out simply part time for the first semester. In the Fall I'll evaluate how I’m doing and decide if it’s time to jump ship, quit my job, and be a full time student. The thought scares the heck out of me, but I know that putting the time and effort into being a full time student and getting my Bachelors sooner rather than later is a necessary evil to finally be able to get my Certification to interpret/translate American Sign Language before I’m 100 years old. Ok, a little dramatic, but you get the point.
So, come January I’m going to be one busy momma. Working full time, being a single Mommy full time, and adding school part-time on top of it all. I guess just writing “time to kiss my free time goodbye” would do the trick! Not the typical college experience, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Time to buckle down and get ‘er done.
In other news, I have been pouring HOURS into studying my tush off for two state exams; Life & Health Insurance License and Property & Casualty Insurance License. Both tests are 100 questions, both study manuals are about 630 pages. That’s a LOT of material to understand and memorize for such limited amount of questions they ask. And of course you HAVE to know all of the material in case they pull some obscure question and test you on it-which they can, and WILL do (why wouldn't they, right? /eyeroll). I’m super nervous, and it’s been really strenuous but I have a positive outlook and I’m excited to finally get my Insurance Licenses. If nothing else, it’s an awesome fall back career and something to hold me over until I’m a full time student.
I’m hoping to take my first state exam (Property & Casualty) on Monday November 22nd, so send good thoughts my way this week as I try to juggle studying for this bear of a test, working, and taking care of PJ!
Cheers,
Nikki

P.S. Oh, other side note… for those of you following my quest for Pop Culture movie list, I AM still doing that. As you can see I’ve been super busy (two 40 hour week pre licensing courses with 2-3 hours of homework each night to prep for the state exams– YUCK!) but I will do my best to watch a movie at some point this week/weekend.

5 comments:

  1. Glad to hear it Nikki! School is fun and I'm sure you'll do fantastic. Remember that you're increasing PJ's chances for success as well as your own.

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  2. It's really refreshing to see the positive steps you're taking towards building a career. I wonder what state you are from though because i'm sure you know every state has different insurance license state requirements. Glad you opted for online self-study and practice material. But passing these exams is not easy. If you don't mind, what's the rush? Why not take one off L&H or P&C first and the other later? Are you onto a job that you have lined up?

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  3. My bad! I just read you're profile. So are you looking to get a Virginia resident insurance licenses or Kentucky non-resident?

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  4. Hey there!! I'm getting my license in Kentucky for both P&C and L&H (i'm a resident of Kentucky). I did pre-licensing courses for both P&C and L&H (9 hour lectures 5 days a week) but the certificate still says self-study. The classes were REALLY helpful, although I know I still have a lot of studying ahead of me before the exam(s).

    There really isn't a 'rush' to get licensed, but I currently work with a State Farm agent and there isn't much for me to do here until get licensed, so I'm eager get it done :) I will probably take P&C in a week or so and then spend 2-3 more weeks studying for L&H before I take that exam as I'm having much more trouble with L&H than the P&C material.

    Sincerely,
    Nikki

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  5. Hey Nikki! :) I wonder why the certificate still says "self-study". Classroom courses are required for Kentucky insurance pre-licensing. Don't mean to scare you, but just make sure with the Department of Insurance that the credits you've earned by taking those classes will count. The school must be approved by them and so should the courses be. I'm not an expert but it is possible that Classroom courses can be approved as self study too.

    Glad to know you're at State Farm. That's the quickest and best way to get into the industry. From the looks of it there are far more non-resident producers in Kentucky than resident. Not sure if that will give you an edge. What type of L&H or P&C insurance are you looking to sell? Have you thought about Long Term Care? Annuities? Just curious..

    Best Regards,
    Sidd

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