This is a week of tests.

I go to school four days a week. Three of those days this week we're having tests. Two of the tests are practical ones, where we're timed doing something & then graded both on our ability to finish within the allotted time & how well we're able to complete the task. We had one of those today, which had me pretty petrified, but then it worked out well. We had to wrap a perm on a mannequin head, wrapping the whole head with single flat wraps (I know that most of you won't know what I mean by that; it's just in there for the few who will). We had to complete the head in an hour, starting out with the hair combed straight back, & it had to be neat. We were graded on the neatness of our parts (you divide the hair into nine sections for this), the evenness of hair distribution on the perm rods, the placement of the band on the rod, whether or not we had any fishhooks (meaning the ends weren't wrapped correctly & would end up being bent instead of curled), the straightness of our rows of perm rods, maintaining an even number of rods on each side of the head, etc, etc. Now, I can wrap ok, but I have never completed a whole perm wrap in an hour. I think maybe I've done it in, like 1:07. So I knew I'd lose a few points on my undone sections. All I wanted was to pass. But it became increasingly clear that she was going to give us more than an hour. She set the timer after we'd started (instead of as we started) & then when it went off, told us to keep going. It went off again & she said, "Keep going! Finish up!" So I did finish the whole head, probably in about 1:10. In all fairness, I should have gotten a lower grade than the people who finished in under an hour. But I wasn't the one who was grading & I got a 93, with just a few points off for crooked bands or unevenly distributed hair or whatever. What I'm saying is, I did better than by all rights I should have. I feel a little bad about that, but I don't see how I can do much about it.
Tomorrow (well, today, I guess it is) we have a written test on haircutting, which I don't think will be too bad, & a practical on what's called a state board head, meaning it's one of the things we'll have to do when we take the state board exam. On one mannequin head, we have to roll three rollers with different placements on top of the head, wrap a row of perm rods down the center of the back of the head, do a c-shaping with pin curls on one side of the head, & do a ridge curl (which also has pin curls) on the other side. I can do this in an under an hour, easy. I like doing rollers, that small number of perm rods is fine, & I don't mind pin curls. But that ridge curl, well...it's kinda like a finger wave. Like a sneaky, sideways finger wave. By which I mean I'm not very good at it. So, we'll see how it goes. I'll have time to work on it, but I'm not sure any amount of time will make my ridge curl very, y'know, ridged.
Thursday we have our 300 hour exam, a written test on everything we've learned so far. That's a little intimidating. I haven't really been studying much, my personal life is a little hectic at the moment, so I'm mostly going to hope that my memory will serve me well.
Next week, they send us out on the floor & give us paying customers! Crazy! Intimidating! Exciting!
I should mention that I've been observing at the salon where I've been getting my hair cut for years. They very kindly let me come in & look over their shoulders & then take the time to explain what they're doing & why. It's pretty wonderful & I'm very grateful to get to do it. I feel like I'm getting a leap ahead in experience. I'm wary of getting in people's way & look forward to being more useful than I am right now, which is not very useful at all. I'm also shampooing some customers, which is good practice. I think I do all right at it, though I know I can improve. Yesterday when I got done with one lady, she sat up & said, "That was very nice, you're very gentle...Can I have a tissue? My ears are full of water." Sigh. Even with something as simple as this, there's always something for me to learn.