It is finished. I have been immersing myself in Greek for the past few days, awaiting the Greek waiver exam (to pass out of the three quarter New Testament Greek requirement at Fuller). I took the exam today. Perhaps it is blasphemous to use Jesus’ last words (as told by John) to describe the completion of the test. But it’s in Greek and the test was on Greek, so there you have it.

It has been four years since I’ve actively used my Greek. I had a pretty good grasp on it in college, with four semesters of study and two as a TA. It is a little hazy these days, but is in the process of resurrecting. In the last 48 hours I have been in a constant state of flux between confidence and panic, excitement and fear. I thought about changing the date of the exam, but I figured that I should just get it over with.

As it turns out, the exam was quite difficult. I did well on vocab, which is what I concentrated on in my studying. And I had three one-sentence translations that were okay. But I didn’t dust off my parsing well enough. There were about 40 words to parse and they weren’t easy. I took too long thinking about them and ran out of time. I left some things blank. I’m often not very good at time management on tests. So I may pass with either a recommendation or requirement that I take the Greek Reading course. It’s something that I’d want to do anyway. The recommendation is left up to the discretion of the grader. I think I may have to study up more and take the test again next quarter. I don’t really mind. Even though the test is finished, as my German professor says, it is not over. Even if I had passed with no errors, it would only be the beginning of my own personal Greek renewal. Here’s to Greek.

Update (9/15/2006): I just opened the envelope to my graded “Greek Waiver Exam 1″ and the results are not good. I understand you’re supposed to make yourself look spiffy and smart on these blogs, but alas, I would like to break with that tradition and be honest. My results show just how rusty I am. I did well on the translation section, good on vocab, but bombed the morphology (the parsing section), and I hardly touched the syntax section when I took it, so that was pretty bleak. The grader determined that I did not pass the exam and should take Beginning Greek; as, indeed, he should have. Well, the thought of sitting in a classroom and going through Mounce’s book for a third time over (the last two were as a student, then a TA… four years ago) just sticks a huge, wicked sharp needle into my oversized balloon of academic joy. Instead, I know that I can adjust my study methods to rock the “Greek Waiver Exam 2″ (The Sequel: Back and Better than Ever). I concentrated more on my GRE this summer than I did the Greek. I am now privy to the secrets of these large exams. I think I can dismantle its challenges by dint of my own intellectual brawn. It’s going to take lots of flashcards for parsing and vocab. I will also try to do at least two translations from the Summer Greek Reader per week with an eye to syntactical functions with the help of Daniel B. Wallace.

The envelope containing my exam results is postmarked 9/8/06, which is exactly four weeks from the time I took the exam. I would like to have the results for the next exam before I register for Winter quarter, which will be between November 14-17. That means I should take the next exam in mid-October and that I have about a month from today to study. I best get crackin’! If I don’t pass this next one free and clear, without any additional requirements to meet for Greek at Fuller, I think I will have to bite the bullet and (ugh) go through a boring intensive of Beginning Greek (or the not-so-boring Greek Reading, if that’s what’s required). But that’s not going to happen. We must think positive thoughts, harness our chi, and bombard our brains with lots of Greek. I’m only sorry (and a bit embarrassed) that Chris had to grade my poor exam, and that Dr. Scholer had to sign off on it. It’ll be better next time. Prepare to be dazzled.

Update (10/6/06): So if I follow my plan from my last update, I would have to take the Waiver exam in the next week. I have hardly been able to study for Greek. Christina started a Masters of Public Health. It is set up for health professionals, so she only goes in for a three-day weekend about once a month. But she is technically a full-time student, and her homework reflects it. She’s also still keeping her full-time job. That means that I have been taking up a lot more work around the apartment, while some of it isn’t getting done by either of us. I’ve barely had time to work on my Fall quarter classes. I have decided not to try to take the exam for next quarter. I really wanted to take Exegetical Methods with Marianne Meye Thompson (which you need the Greek requirement for), but I get the feeling that I’m getting the upscale version of that with her in New Testament Research Methods.

The more I think about it, though, I also do not want to take the Greek intensive next quarter. I would really rather save those units to take the more advanced Greek courses and use the rest of my electives to take NT classes. I hear that this is Donald Hagner’s last year at Fuller pre-retirement and I could take a class with him next quarter on Paul and the Law. There are a couple other classes that I could benefit from taking next quarter too, like my Old Testament exegesis class with Butler (before I forget my Hebrew too much) and Early Church History with Bradley.

So here’s the new plan: After Fall quarter ends, study like mad for Greek during the three weeks of winter break; take the exam just before the Winter quarter begins; pass the exam with flying colors. This way, I can take Exegetical Methods in the Spring quarter with Fuller’s newest NT faculty addition, Love Sechrest. She got her doctorate at Duke, I believe under Mark Goodacre. It would be good to get to know her a bit. I always like getting to know recent PhDs; I’m not sure why that is. I can also take Greek Reading in the Spring quarter this way. I think it’ll work out okay.