The Test

I left for the interview (or so I thought) at 9:42am, giving me 18 minutes to get to the school and was eight minutes early. Can't be too early, right? I walk into the school office (side note- I always feel like I'm about to be in big trouble in any school office) and stood at the counter nervously. A big man, whom I recognized as NOT the principal, came into the office and told me he was Nate. Um, hello Nate. He told me the principal had to run an errand, but she would be back soon and was I there to take the test? I answered in the affirmative and he pointed me to a place behind the counter where there was a test booklet (gulp), bubble sheets (gulp again), and two #2 pencils. Thank you, Nate. I saw down at the desk and gazed in horror at the title of the test booklet. Stanford Achievement Test.

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen. The SAT. I think I looked and blinked at the book for a full minute. I was told that I would be taking a test to be an assistant to the Music Teacher. She told me the whole process would take about two hours. I (very stupidly) assumed that I would take some sort of test (not the SAT) and then have a chitty chat with the principal. Apparently, no.

After my initial shock wore away, I opened the book and started in. Ah, English. I love grammar and all things that involve Language Mechanics. Nerdy. I know. Reading Comprehension, Language Mechanics, Language Expression, Spelling, and writing a paragraph on a subject of my choosing. Easy, peasy pudding pie. Well, for the most part anyway. And then came the math. I was pleased to discover that I wasn't taking the ENTIRE SAT, but only certain sections of it. There was a basic skill test on math. You know, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and, ah, percentages. I totally blanked out on the percentage question. I completely forgot how to do it. FORGOT HOW TO DO IT. I sat there trying to figure the problem out, redoing it over and over, knowing that I wasn't coming up with the correct answer. After about 15 minutes, with nothing else to complete, I left it blank (I hate to leave spaces blank-no bubble to fill in on that one or I would've guessed) and packed up the papers and booklet. I sheepishly told the principal I had forgotten how to do percentages, which she laughed off and told me that I could miss six out of twenty on the math page. Thank goodness she had a sense of humor. I felt pretty dumb. She told me she would grade the test and call me tomorrow about an interview. Of course, this is pending that I'm not an idiot. Tomorrow. (By the way, "Tomorrow." is not a sentence. I did that for emphasis. Total artistic breaking of grammar rules. I did it on purpose. Just so you know.)

How could I forget how to do percentages? I shop all the time and KNOW how take %35 off a coveted jacket. I don't know. Brain cramp, I guess. I am still having trouble remembering. Perhaps I need to shop to feel better. Eh? I NEED to work on my math skills.