Post date: Oct 08, 2013 6:17:1 AM
I had applied for the test last May and got the venue in Colorado in August. I could choose 3 venues and luckily I got my first choice.
The test took for 2days. We met on Friday afternoon. There were about 13 candidates and 3 assessors.
1. There was a short orientation followed by Pranayama test. The assessors asked us to do the same way we practice at home. At home I do practice lying on a bolster but the bolsters at the venue were not the same one so I choose to use blankets instead. I folded up 3blankets and used a belt to cover my eyes. But imagine how much you can practice like at home when the assessors walking around and try to hear your breathing! My heart beat was so fast in the beginning I was sure they could hear me. But after a while I could get a bit relaxed.
2. After a short break, there was a written test. This was the most stressful part for me to prepare. Even though they give you the books to study I had hard time to know how much/deep I need to know about things. The test was a lot easier than I expected so I got relived more.
3. Then there was demonstration of the poses. There were 32 poses I needed to master for the test. The assessors made us to line up and three of them take turn to watch three candidates at a time. The host of the venue was calling out the Sanskrit names of the poses with a timer. This part was kind of fun. It was just like practice at home and made me feel really good after the test. During the test, I noticed that candidates were practicing slightly different ways. For example I like to have my hands next to my hips on the floor when I sit in Virasana rather than on my knees. I like to raise one arm high when I come to Trikonasana and etc. It was kind of nice to see the differences.
4. After the demo test they passed out the poses we will teach on Saturday or Sunday. I had to teach Virabhadrasana 2 (warrior 2), Uttanasana (intense stretching pose), Maricyasana 1 (sage pose) and Salamba Sarvangasana (shoulder stand) within 30 minutes on Saturday afternoon.
5. I ate very light on Saturday morning and got there early enough to do some relaxed poses. Actually at the moment, I kind of wanted to get it done. I had been waiting for this about 3 1/2 years! In my turn, I went into the classroom a bit early to get to know the students. There were 5 of them. I briefly asked them about their physical conditions and if they need any assistant for the shoulder stand pose. There was a gentle man who seems very strong with built muscles. I could tell he might need some assistant for shoulder stand because of his thick arms. There was one older lady who I knew I need to give more attention. Two of the ladies seemed to be there to get a better idea for their own assessment in the future. And the last one seemed to be very average healthy person.
6. The assessors came into the room right on time. They introduced themselves and told the students that they were there to support me go in to the process and thanked them to volunteer to be my students. The word ‘support’ made me really relaxed. The whole time, the assessors were so quite and moved gracefully I didn’t even notice much that there were in the room! Half way through a chime rang and I acknowledged by nodding and went on. My timing wasn’t bad but the second to the last pose I thought I ran out of time so I sped up a bit and didn’t do one more thing I wanted to do. I finished the pose 8minutes before the final chime. I thought I need at least 8minutes to set up and teach the shoulder stand pose. But thanks to the students they were very quick to set up and very much attentive to my instructions I was able to demo and teach them fully and finished them all even a minute early:)
I had about one hour after the test to catch a bus to the airport. Somehow I got more nervous after the test and it made me so hungry. It was already a late afternoon and I only had a very light meal. I ate whatever I could find for the whole trip back ;)
The whole process for the assessment was very nice experience for me. First of all I thank my mentor who helped me so much to go through this. And thank to my students who let me share my experience. The preparation made my home practice more strong and my teaching more confident and mature. Also now I passed the assessment, I have a sense of belonging to the world wide Iyengar yoga community. It also makes me inspired to study more and go thorough the next assessment. The next one is for 42 poses. Almost every day I practice those poses and try to get my understanding deeper. Hopefully by next summer I will be ready for the next level of assessment.
Namaste!