Today in my “Math for Dummies” class a handful of students, including me, were called up to the professor’s desk. This always makes me nervous, though I’ve been doing well and have been on-time and everything so I couldn’t imagine what this was about. Then I remembered that I’m between mandatory measles shots and perhaps they were going to make me wear a mask or something, because a 38 year old bald, bearded man in a classroom full of teenagers and early 20 somethings doesn’t stick out enough already.
Come to find out, I had been selected to take a prototype of the new placement test administered to those wishing to attend the college. This is the test I was cramming for at the beginning of the month, after achieving a dismal score back in November. Apparently the college is converting from a paper-based test to a computer administered exam.
Always in it for computer fun and looking to crash software, I volunteered to take the exam. It wouldn’t alter my placement scores nor would it exempt me from taking Math For Dummies, but it would provide valuable feedback to the college and would also make me eligible for a door prize.
So I took the exam. It looks like future college hopefuls are going to have an easier time than I did, as they will now allow calculators and there are a quarter as many questions compared to the paper-based exam I had to take. The test administrative woman wouldn’t tell me my score, but she did let out a “Wow!” when the printer spewed out my exam and score, so either I did really well or I did really poorly. I guess we’ll never know. Perhaps the mathematics professors are yukking it up once again in their private offices, not that I’m paranoid or anything. “He thinks it takes four thousands gallons of water and one hectare to slipcover New Jersey! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Maybe I’ll win the undisclosed door prize.
