first day of school -- the level test

The school told me that I can show up for the level test "from 1/7 to 1/9 any time between 1-3 in classroom 209". That's already a little strange -- it's more accommodating to students than I have ever seen before.
Now, since I am totally keen to start school, I did of course go on the first day and the earliest time. There was a bunch of other students who looked Chinese (so I didn't think they were students of Chinese language) and they turned out to be Vietnamese.
The teacher greeted us, asked our names and asked how much Chinese we have learned before. The Vietnamese students all just started learning one month ago (or was it three, I don't remember) and so they would do the beginner's course anyway, no test needed.
The teacher asked whether we had already studied Chinese writing and since I hadn't (in fact, I just started self-study on the day I arrived here!), I will also to the beginner's course! No level test needed. We'll see how all of this works out. I don't mind starting from the rules of pronunciation again, because I am still lacking some of the foundations. Since the Computer Linguistics course and some discussions about sounds in English, I am also more aware of how sounds are made in my mouth and hope to make use of that knowledge this time. Also, we will learn zhuyin / bopomofo (the Taiwanese notation for pronunciation, as opposed to the international pinyin), which is useful to communicate with Taiwanese people about pronunciation. The relaxed style that people have here gives me hope that I will later be able to skip some stuff that I know already and make good use of my little time here to learn new stuff. So I don't worry about being in beginner's level.

First day of classes will be next Monday, when we get some equipment from the school and then start at 8:10 in the morning every day until 11. That's gonna be my life for the next three months; until the 10th of April, in fact.