Revenge of the Pencils

Well, the old WKCE testing strikes again! Poor little sophomores get their nerves all hyped up and then after it's all over, let out a huge sigh of relief. I had the pleasure of sitting in a chair at the Madison Public library for about seven hours today. After waiting for a few minutes for a group of people to clear out of the room we were going to use, (I occupied my time with straitening shelves which I have gained the habit of after volunteering at our local library. Where are those silly Madison library volunteers anyway?) I found a seat and couldn't wait to get started!! heh.... yeah. So, the wonderful teachers, Mr. Wright and Mrs. Pease, (that we are so grateful for for spending most of their day watching high schoolers take a test) went through the instructions and handed out our number 2 pencils (remember, ONLY number 2 pencils) and other helpful things including calculators and a nice little cardboard ruler. Then we were off! We had around 35 minuets to complete each "session" or test. The first three contained around three types of stories and then we had to answer a few multiple choice problems. After completing each session we would quietly show one of the teachers that we had in fact completed it. They would write down the time we had completed the session and we would then move on to the next.

After going through three sessions of reading, three sessions of mathematics (which I will confess, I don't think I represented our school to well. I hope I got at least a couple right...) and around two sessions of science, I started to get a little tired of it. This was the first booklet. While I sat there at the table, almost becoming hopeful that I would finish this wonderful booklet of questions, Mr. Wright announced that it looked like some of us were rushing through the test (not I) and that there was still another to come! That definitely made me excited. I eventually made it through the first booklet and decided to keep on going without stopping to take a lunch break. Who needs energy for this magnificent test anyways? Once again I found myself trying to make it through a couple sessions of social studies and writing. I actually almost feel confident that I did close to alright with writing. I wrote about the Age of Technology! Fun stuff... I even mentioned online learning. I think I should get an award for that! After a few more grueling hours of multiple choice questions and filling them in with my number 2 pencil, I was done! All I can say is, I'm glad this does NOT count toward our grade and that it is not our lovely school alone making us poor kids do the test. I also would like to say, those who have this wonderful experience ahead of them, try to at least think of doing your best and representing our school! And that's about it. I can't think of any other reason to be thankful for the test at the moment... Oh, I know. I won't have to use a #2 pencil to take a test again for the rest of the year!