Java Certified!!!!

Whilst in Dubai I studied and passed my Java 5 certification exam! It was mostly too hot to be outside during the day anyway, and without anything concrete to do I would have climbed the walls and gone mad.. So I studied and studied and registered to take the exam at a place in Knowledge Village, just up the road from us.

I showed up early, seeing as I did not want any unforeseen things to happen.. Well, they did. I was told that the test centre, HDI, had cancelled all exams as they had connection issues. Either with internet or a server or something. They said Synergy, another test centre in the same building, might let me take the exam with them, so I rushed up to ask them, but they needed the voucher number (got a voucher when I ordered the exam last year). So I got in a taxi, went back to the flat and got my voucher, and went back to Synergy. Unfortunately when HDI had cancelled the exam, they had not done it in the proper fashion, which is why I was never told, so my voucher was tied to their exam, and invalid. So I called Prometrics in Holland to see what I can do, and the first guy I spoke to said it's not cancelled by HDI, I need to go down and ask them to cancel it. So I do, but they cannot get online to the e-helpdesk to cancel it.

I call Holland again, and I'm told I need to go back to HDI and tell them forcefully to call helpdesk and get a ticket number for the issue, otherwise there is nothing they can do. So I go back to HDI and they call their contact, and after about 30 minutes I finally have a ticket number. I go back to Synergy, call Prometrics back, get the same nice guy who told me about the ticket number, and he fixes it for me so I can take the exam with Synergy. I have by now run out of money on my pay-as-you-go mobile, and I'm getting hungry and tired. However, it's not straight forward as Synregy usually don't let people take exams on Thursday afternoons, they made an exception with me. So an hour later, and 3 hrs after I was meant to start the exam, I got to take the exam.

Now I thought everything was straight forward. I did all I could, but didn't get to double check all my answers. I had more than enough time, but I really needed the loo, and I was really hungry, it being close to 6pm and my last meal had been a couple of slices of toast at 11am. So I just submitted the exam, only to find out that the printer didn't work. You don't get to know your results before you see the printout of the report. So starts another hour and a bit of waiting for the poor guy who'd helped me out earlier, to come back to work from the middle of Dubai, and fix the printing problem.

Having arrived at the building at 12.10pm, I was able to leave it at 7.15pm, and only got home after 7.30pm. I was absolutely shattered, and I was at one point wondering if I was just not meant to take the exam. Especially considering the first time I tried I had almost the same happen, except I was told a couple of days in advance, and had an extra voucher I could use. What a day, is all I can say..