Exams ‘07, day one

To start with, we had to find our desks.

This was no simple task, considering the substantial number of students taking Algebra/Math 12/Precalculus tests.

Steve: “Yeah, this is actually the first part of the test…”
Me: “So if we fail this part–”
Steve: “–The rest of it will be a lot harder.

It was, too.

Not only were there problems that I had no idea how to do, or even begin, but it was also probably the longest math test I’ve ever taken. Maybe the best part of it was when I randomly guessed an answer, then went back later and waded through the icky mathness part of it and found out I’d guessed correctly to begin with.

I should use that strategy more often. Not.

The worst part was that ugly derivative problem! And afterwards, my mom taught me a nifty trick for figuring out the derivatives of the products of functions. Curse you, Steve, for not teaching us this vital piece of information before! Alternatively, he could’ve just left it off the final, which would’ve been just fine by me.

Later I was talking with Jessica (whom I will miss terribly– darn graduating senior that she is), who described the test as “really really fun!”– I assume, in much the way that beating one’s head repeatedly with a spiked club is fun. Of course, she is a senior. We level-headed underclassmen must excuse the seniors for their increasingly frequent departures from sanity.

I emerged from the math test in no mood to think, let alone study for Global. I barely had the energy to put bread into my mouth and contemplate the mysteries of its contents, which included molasses and oats and other unidentified substances. Um. Yeah, pretend you cared about that.

At any rate! The Global Regents. If I hadn’t been severely suffering from “test burnout,” I would have glided through this like a fish through water. It was still relatively easy though– extremely easy compared to 1) the SAT IIs, 2) PB’s class in general, and 3) the math final I’d just taken. I’m so glad I didn’t actually have to know anything from 9th grade Global in order to write the essays.

The multiple choice section is not even worth writing about, it was so stupefyingly simple. (Oh, you incompetent spellcheck, of course “stupefyingly” is a word.)

Then I hurried Downtown with Karin. I hope Karin got to ballet on time and was not hung, drawn, and quartered for not having her hair in a perfect bun! And I hope Eva got her review book back so she could have the pleasure of incinerating it! Or maybe Raffi took care of that already.

But enough irrelevancies. I have studying to do!

Tags: exams, Global, Precalculus