"...I like to think that if I was I would pass."

I received my scores for the basic skills test yesterday, and I'm pleased to say that I passed.

There were four sections, and the possible scores on each ranged from 0-300, with a 240 required in each section to pass. Now, I KNOW the point is simply to pass. It's a bureaucratic checkpoint, like a driver's test: if you pass, you move on. Simple as that. And perhaps I could do just that, except for my writing score.

I wrote an organized, well-articulated, fully-supported argument in favor of compulsory driver testing for people over 70 years old. I didn't choose this topic myself, it was assigned. I chose to support my position on three bases, and did so clearly and effectively. I was actually kind of proud of it at the end. My score: 255 out of 300.

Say what?

Now, I have no way of knowing the grade distribution for the written test, and without that there's no way of judging my relative performance. However, I can't help but notice that 255 is a lot closer (numerically) to the Fail threshold than it is to the Knocked It Out Of The Park threshold. And knowing what I know about my writing skills relative to those of the average American adult, I simply refuse to believe that I could have been anywhere close to failing that test. The only thing I'm left with is the notion that the person(s) grading my test was one of those over 70, whose driving privileges were so effectively dissected in my essay. If only I could know that for sure, I'd wear my 255 as a badge of honor.

Am I guilty of pride? So be it. But this experience is so reminiscent of my experience in college when I left political science for math and physics after my freshman year. I did so in part because I really didn't like what I perceived as subjectivity in the grading of the numerous writing assignments in poli sci: I would sometimes write what I felt was a fantastic paper, only to receive a mediocre grade. That doesn't really happen in math or physics. You either know that stuff or you don't. And to me that's still comforting, almost 20 years after I switched fields in college.

If nothing else, my writing score will serve to remind me that I'm in the right field after all.

On to the Content Test in April!