OMG - Update

You guys are not going to believe this, but after $85 of non-refundable testing and online training fees and three days of intense stress, I do not have to take the bloody test after all! I'm a total wreck! Seriously? She kept going on and on about the fact that I hadn't had English Comp 1 (which I did in 1988), so I pulled out my old transcripts (which took hours because I was looking in the Duck room closet and I had to move all kinds of junk to get to my file boxes, only to discover it was in my bedroom closet in my file cabinet, which took moving exactly two blankets to get to). I emailed them to her today hence the "oh, OK, you had English so never mind on the ACT test", like it was nothing! Seriously?

But for all my talk in the last post, sometimes I forget that a lot of you guys, oh friends of mine, are not from the States and don't know our crappy school system ways and I just blab on and on like you know what the heck I'm talking about! I figured I'd better give you an explanation of our stupid testing system, then an update of what is happening...sorry!

In the States we have to college/university admittance tests...either the SAT (which is usually for the "big" ivy-league type schools...short for Scholastic Aptitude Test) and ACT (which is for the little guys, like mine...short for American College Test). To get into college, you have to take one or the other (or both, depending on your sanity level).

I'm only gonna talk about the ACT, since I didn't have to take the SAT (although I could have, but that would be even crazier and I would have NEVER passed it!). The ACT tests your aptitude in Math, Science and English with multiple choice questions. There is also a reading section, but my school doesn't require it. The score level goes from 1 to 36, with 36 being a perfect score (and 1 meaning you might as well give it up). Each section is scored and you have to get an combined score of at least 19 (in my day it was 16), but if you don't get that high of a score in a section, then off to remedial classes you go. So, if you get a total of 23 overall and you get a 16 in English, then you have to take a remedial English course (which cost full price, but don't count toward your degree), then an intermediate one (same story), then the real one. So that's two classes at $1000 a piece that you take basically for nothing other than to get you to the real class (which also costs $1000). I had to do that the first time back in the 80's in Algebra (but now I'm not sure why because I have a copy of those scores and I had a 22 in Math. I emailed her about that too but she couldn't answer that one either.

Now she's hung up on my shot records. In the States, back in my day, we had a shot called MMR - Measles, Mumps and Rubella. It's plain as day on my shot record, but she doesn't get the concept of it. First she kept trying to say that I hadn't had my Measles shot...it's the first "M" toots. Now she's saying I haven't had my Mumps (aka the second "M"). So now I have to dig out my shot records (which, FYI, I think are in the Duck room closet so I have to dig all that crap out...again), and send them to her or I have to go get those shots again. Obviously I had them or I couldn't have gone to any school, be it primary, middle, high, or college, let alone worked in a lab for 25+ years. Whatcha wanna bet those shots cost $85 to get?

I have to laugh now or I'd be a panicked mess on the floor.