My road to Bergenstest

At last! After the long wait.

When I passed the Nasjonalfag for sykepleie, it felt like it was a breakthrough. That feeling when you finally discovered the definite cure for cancer.  Well, I am exaggerating. :) Seriously,I knew back then that I had reached a milestone in my quest here in Norway, but like all other quests, that is just one leg and sooner or later, another challenge will emerge. I was meaning to take the Bergenstest right after I became a nurse here. That was the plan. But it took me what, 5 years, to finally do something about it.

Why am I taking this test, you might ask me. I am already a nurse and I passed the Norsk prove 3, which is the standard requirement. Good question! haha Let me tell you this though. I wish to go back to school and take a specialty or higher education (masters or maybe a Ph.D.) and a requirement is passing the Bergenstest, which is designed for foreigners who intend to apply for admission at a Norwegian university or college. Not only that, you see, some employers, especially in Oslo, also require that applicants has a B2 or higher level in language proficiency. Competition is getting stiffer here.

A challenge though: I could not physically attend a Norsk kurs in Oslo (where bergenstest preparation courses are held). My daughter is exclusively breastfeeding and is not a big fan of bottles so I have to be with her or I can be away but for like 1-2 hours max. But I did not let this deter me. I really want this. So I looked over the internet if there are online courses offered and viola! I found one.

Oslo Voksenopplæring Rosenhof is offering an online Bergenstest preparation course. They have like 15 slots per class and to get in, you have to take inntakstest (an entrance/ evaluation exam) to check whether this course suits you, in terms of your norskkunskap. So I took the inntakstest and to make the long story short, i got in! Self high-five! :)

I will be doing a separate post on what the entrance test was about and throw in some of the examples. :) So I hope to see you again on my next blog entry. :)