I took my State test today.
I sat in a room with about twenty other people who were also taking State exams. I was one of two people taking the PR test; everyone else had tests that involved math and calculators. The proctors passed out the tests by calling out the title of the job (Programmer Analyst, for instance) and approaching us with the test and I got to see who took what. By show of hands, most people were there to take either an accountancy test or a prison-related test (parole officer, prison warden, etc.). The two women sitting at my table were there to take a driver’s license examiner test. I kept a look out for any programmers, but there weren’t any of those tests passed out.
The other test-takers were an even distribution of sex and race, which impressed me. Michael, who has worked for the State for four years now, said the State didn’t fuck around when it came to diversity – he works with men and women of all different shapes, sizes, and races.
The test itself was long, hard and girthy. Seriously. It was long because it took me two of the allotted three hours to finish it. It was hard because it consisted of journalism-related questions (AP Style, charts and graphs, etc.) that I had never studied before. And it was girthy because it was a hundred questions in a thick, Orwellian test booklet. It was divided into four parts: journalistic style, reading comprehension, grammar and scheduling. Reading comp and grammar were my best subjects; journalistic style my worst (because I have no experience with journalism). But the most intense section of the test was also the shortest: the scheduling section. I spend twenty minutes trying to place lunch hours, meetings, and traveling into a five-day work week. It was a pain in the ass. You know those logic puzzles in those big thick puzzle books that you can buy at the grocery store? That’s what that scheduling section looked like: “Traveling from A to B will take you three hours on Thursday. You must have a meeting on Friday. You cannot go to B and C on the day that you have an 11 o’clock lunch hour.” I also had a list of items to complete that day and I had to decide which I’d do first and what could wait until last. Like I said, I spent so much time on that little, two-part section that I came out with a headache.
How do I think I did? It’s hard to tell. I did my best with what limited knowledge I had. The test asked fair questions, but it was no picnic. I am so glad I studied the AP Stylebook before I took it; that really helped me out. (Incidentally, did you notice that I haven’t used the Oxford comma in this entry? That’s the AP style working its way into my typing!) I won’t hear back from the State about my scoring for about a month.
Hopefully, they grade on a curve.
