Nails 101: A Student Blog

Week 15: I Passed!

by NAILS Magazine | February 3, 2011 | Bookmark +

I will get straight to the point — I passed my state board exam! I am relieved, excited and ready to start working! It was the longest day of my life and I am so happy that it is over and that it was a successful adventure!

My husband and I left Sacramento at 6:15 in the morning. I hardly slept that night because I couldn’t stop running over things in my head that I didn’t want to forget. There were procedures I didn’t want to screw up and questions I had to remember the answers to. The drive to Fairfield was completely uneventful and we were there 45 minutes early. I went in to my written exam at 7:45 and I came out at 8:20. I felt that the test was much easier then the ones I took in school, and by far simpler then the one I took seven years ago for my esthetic license. The questions were very dumbed down. If you had done well in school and had studied, it was easy enough to go through and find the right answer. There was no guessing. The right answer always stood out, sometimes because it was simply obvious based on the other answers. That made it pretty easy to pass. You only need to get 70 questions right to pass, and out of 100, there were two questions I completely guessed on.

I had four hours to kill after my written exam, so we took a drive to kill time, had lunch, went to Target, Matt took a nap in the car. I was antsy the more sitting around I had to do. I couldn’t take it any longer — I just wanted to be done.

I picked up my kit at 12:30 p.m. and was able to go get checked in for my exam. Matt was not the only husband/boyfriend/brother there as a model. I think he was slightly worried that he would be the only guy, but almost half the models were men. I had finally gotten to meet up with the other girl from my class who had the same appointment time as I did, and we sat talking in the waiting room together. We were hoping to get to be in the same room together, but that didn’t happen.

The test started officially at 1:45 p.m. My class schedule was as follows: Prepare the day’s disinfectant, do a pedicure on the foot of my choice, disinfect used implements, perform a two handed manicure, perform nail enhancement services including, sculpted acrylic nail, acrylic overlay on a tip, silk wrap, tip glued onto fingernail and blended in. By 2:15 I had finished my pedicure, which was exactly where I wanted to be. The manicure was a breeze and I had half an hour to then finish all my nail enhancement services. I was slightly worried because the proctor didn’t seem to pay any attention to me. Matt said she only stood behind me or glanced at me maybe 10 times. She was hovering over other girls. I knew it was either a good thing or a bad thing. I was just hoping that it was because she could see I was competent and was going to leave me alone. Turns out I was right. I finished with 10 minutes to spare and could not wait to get out of that room — it was way too hot in there.

The worst part of my day was they were having a computer issue and we literally waited nearly an hour and 15 minutes to get our results. Matt was worse then I was. I could clearly see him outside pacing on the phone. He kept looking in the window at me. Later he told me that after going through this whole thing with me he felt like he was being tested too. My name was announced first out of the 30 or so people who had been tested that day. When she handed me that license, a huge weight was off my shoulders and I could have cried, which I did in the car. I knew I would get to this point, I just didn’t realize how all the hard work and stress had affected me emotionally. I worked hard, and I deserved this! My classmate had also passed! The ride home was quick, made short by all the phone calls I had to make. We went to dinner with some of the guys from the coaching staff. They have been huge supporters of me from day one, all being subjected to manicures at one point or another! They said they owed me for all the time I have put into supporting them on the field.

All said and done, I had a blast and I would do it again in a heartbeat! It was awesome and I couldn’t have asked for a better support system to help me get thought it. Now it’s on to promoting this new side of my business and getting busy with continuing education. I can’t wait for what the future will hold.

Thank you all for your amazing support!

— Karyn

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