Idreamed about Thomas Jefferson last week.

I promised him I would be loyal to the United States. The stars and stripes was hanging on my wall. He asked me: What does the judicial branch of government do? Why did the colonists fight the British? When was the Constitution written?

In 1787, I answered.

What happened on the Fourth of July of 1776? The Declaration of Independence was signed.

Don't mix up the dates, I told myself.

What a dream! Of course, before going to sleep, I had read over and over the 100 questions for the citizenship test. The truth is that I have been a little nervous. And there is reason to be: this is one of those interviews that can change the direction of your life.

Though we immigrants may have reservations and dread the moment, we always yearn for the day of the interview. It's one-on-one with an immigration official.

I sent my application 2 ½ months ago. The process has been swift. In fact, a colleague who recently passed the test was summoned for her oath ceremony only a week later. She's already a U.S. citizen. What a joy!

The process was not always flawless. I never received, for instance, the appointment notice by mail from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the fingerprints the FBI needed for my background check. Fortunately, my lawyer's office had received a copy and I was able to show up.

TREATED SPLENDIDLY

I went to the new USCIS headquarters in Miami where I was treated splendidly. Everything was in order and I was done in less than an hour. No complaints.

A month ago, the interview notice arrived in my mailbox. Not until last week did I attend the English Center, a Miami-Dade District school for adults where U.S. naturalization test courses are taught for free. What can I say? I procrastinated.

In a classroom decorated with patriotic images -- a huge flag made of bottle caps and egg cartons, a Pledge of Allegiance poster, an illustrated narrative of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life -- Marlene Ramírez, the teacher, played the role of the immigration official in a mock interview with my fellow student, 68-year-old María Ulloa.

``It's a challenge, no doubt about it,'' said Ulloa, who came from Cuba in 2003 and reached the highest level of English in the class. ``It's not easy to learn these questions at age 68. But with persistence, everything is possible.''

The 100 civic questions about history and government are part of an oral test. We're supposed to correctly answer six of 10 questions that will be asked. Also, we must be capable of correctly writing a dictated sentence and read a question out loud.

In the interview, conducted in English, we must go over personal information contained in the Form N-400 application for naturalization.

The citizenship test was changed last year. Immigration officials argue that the new questions encourage actual meaning and understanding of facts over memorization. Immigrant advocacy groups, however, complain that the test is now cumbersome.

Ledyn Díaz, 30, failed the test twice in 2003. ``I was so nervous I couldn't get the words out in English,'' she said.

`REALLY COMMITTED'

She is studying the course again. ``I'm really committed to this,'' said Díaz, a Honduran who came to this country 12 years ago. ``This is my daughters' country and that makes it my own, too.''

Difficult or not, thanks to this test, we new Americans get to know the Constitution and the values of this great nation's founders, as well as -- and sometimes even better than -- those born here.

On Monday, I passed the naturalization test!

I thought about one of the walls of the English Center classroom, where a bright poster seduces the eye. ``This is an area of positive thinking,'' it reads.

I will keep that in mind when I take the citizenship oath next week. The dream of Jefferson. And Jefferson's dreams.

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