Exciting News!

Some of you might already know this (e.g. if you’re friends with me on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter): I passed the Greek Proficiency Exam at TEDS!!! And not only did I pass, but I tested into Dr. Constantine Campbell’s Greek exegesis sequence. If you missed my reflections on teaching myself beginning Greek from about a month ago, you can read it here. I was very nervous about the exam. Especially early in the learning process, I had a lot of questions about grammar and morphology that were not addressed in Mounce’s grammar; the innate nerd in me struggled with having unanswered questions, and the goal-oriented part of me feared not being able to pass the exam because of these perceived gaps in learning. If I had had time, I would have liked to work through an intermediate grammar, but I just barely finished two run-throughs of Mounce and had no time to consult additional resources. I think it’s a bit of a miracle that I did as well as I did, because I was in full “freak out” mode as I took the exam. Even though it’s for the purpose of testing out of beginning Greek, some of the grammar questions and one of the translation passages was at an intermediate level. If I could do it over (without knowing I would have passed with just my actual level of preparation, of course), I would definitely also have worked through an intermediate grammar.

So, yes….after taking the exam I was fairly certain that I did not pass, and I moped around the rest of the day. I’m the type of person who reads whenever I have free time, but after the exam I was so distraught that I couldn’t even read. Under the assumption that I had failed, I just kept telling myself that even if I have to fork over an additional $5,000 to take beginning Greek, everything would be alright and that God had a purpose even for this seeming travesty. I also thought that maybe God had ordained this failure to humble me (because I did feel like my academic career had failed before it even started).

I was not expecting to find out the results until Monday, but I received an email Sunday afternoon and was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day. I really wanted to buy myself a book to reward myself for my hard work that saved me $5,000 but I didn’t (what self control, right?). Anyway, I’m ecstatic to have tested into exegesis at all; but I’m especially thrilled to be in Dr. Campbell’s sequence. All the professors are phenomenal, but Dr. Campbell is really at the forefront of research in Greek and has written an amazing exegetical and theological treatment of Paul and union with Christ, with a similar study on Pauline eschatology in the pipeline. I was hoping to test into his exegesis sequence, and I am just elated to have made it. Soli Deo gloria!!

So, with the addition of NT Greek Exegesis I with Dr. Constantine Campbell, my schedule for my first semester of seminary is now complete. It’s truly a who’s who of contemporary biblical and theological scholarship! In addition to Greek Exegesis I I’m taking Systematic Theology I with Vanhoozer, Biblical Theology and Interpretation with Carson, American Church History with Manetsch, and Elementary Hebrew with a doctoral student. ST and BT will be pretty easy for me because I already know the material and read the books years ago, but I anticipate that purely because it’s KJV & The Don, I will not be bored.

Alright, that’s all I have for now in terms of updates. I do have one more bit of news, but you’ll have to wait a few weeks before I tell you about that 🙂

Posted by Jennifer Guo on August 24, 2015

https://jenniferguo.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/exciting-news/