Praxis...check.

At 7:30 this morning, I was found sitting in room 445 of the MARB getting ready to take the Praxis exam. What is the Praxis? Well, it's a qualifying test for secondary teachers. You have to take it in your subject area. Someone today said, "It's like the bar for history teachers!" While I would say that that's a gross exaggeration, it is an important test. It's also stringently proctored--like the ACT.

Well, our proctor was kind of rude. I understand that she's supposed to be strict, but she took that to a whole new level. Examples:

1. Everyone was waiting to start the test, and a few people were missing, apparently. Someone asked if they could know who was missing so that they could call them. Now, the answer she gave was reasonable...it's not like we all didn't know about this test, but she scoffed at the student who was trying to be nice, and just said, "Nope! They can take it in January!"
2. This is 7:30 in the morning...on a Saturday, and someone asked if we could eat. There was no explanation, just a hearty...and rude..."Absolutely Not!"
3. No eating or drinking was allowed during the test. A girl in front of me took a drink out of her water bottle, which made one of those loud pop sounds when the plastic sucks in. She was quickly approached by the proctor, who said, in no uncertain terms, "Do you realize that I could confiscate your test for that? There is NO eating or drinking during this test, and you are making so much noise and disrupting other people."

It was one of those awful awkward feelings...like when the teachers in school would lecture someone in front of the class. I would say that it's more likely that SHE was more distracting than any plastic popping.

Oh well, it's over, and that's really all that matters at this point.