"I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested..."

I got up early this morning to take the Illinois Basic Skills Test. It's a standardized test for all prospective teachers, not unlike the SAT. There are 4 sections: reading comprehension, language arts, mathematics and writing. The first couple of sections require a lot of reading and then a few questions of varying degrees of obscurity about the reading. This is a VERY painful process for me since I'm what you might call a "deliberate" reader. I take my time.

Having survived these sections of the test, the determinism of the math section was like a breath of fresh air. I crushed that section and went on to the essay where, I'm sorry to report to the geriatrics of the world, I made a brilliant, well-articulated case for annual driver testing for people over 70.

Overall, I feel I did well. But who doesn't? I'll know in a month. The thing that worries me is that if I didn't pass for some reason, there's nothing I can study or work on that would make me any better next time.

We'll see...

I would also like to note that there were, literally, thousands of people there getting tested. The lady in line ahead of me was assigned seat #2742. Even if I assume that there were no more seats than that, the implication is that the state collected over $70,000 in registration processing fees ALONE for this single testing site, on this single day. I'd REALLY like to know where all that money goes.