On
our drive up to the town where the test was being held our crazy
friend Ray sang that Denny's jingle that goes, '$1.99? are you out of
your mind?” theme song for the grand slam breakfast probably around
two or three hundred times. It was pretty awesome the first 10 times
and then started to pass over into a tedious mantra that hung heavy
on un-slept nerves. We got to Denny's with the rest the rejects and
social misfits that show up at four o'clock in the morning and
ordered ourselves a round of grand slam breakfasts which I believe I
paid for because I was the only one who had any money. When we
finished up our delicious, nutritious and fortifying brain food -
hotcakes, two eggs and two strips of bacon. We showed up at the
college where the test was being held to get signed in. At this point
I was running on adrenaline and a high amount of vibration was coming
from my ears, or maybe my brain or the little bit of gushy stuff
between the ears and the brain. Sorry to get you side tracked on a
bunch of medical mambo-jumbo but for those in the know that kind of
stuff is interesting. I got my test books and my room assignment and
waited to see what was on an ACT test it turned out it was a lost
knowledge party of things I had did knew.. . ago, except for a
concept called radians which I guess we had not had time to cover in
geometry class. I felt pretty strong going into the reading section
when the proctor wrote the wrong time on the board so when I looked
up from reading the first of five sections it appeared that I only
had 20 of the remaining 60 minutes. I was confused at how I took so
much time reading one section of two pages and answering the
questions. I panicked and I started reading at a reckless pace to get
the other four down in the next 20 min. If you had done as well on
the math part as me you know that is roughly 5 minutes apiece, carry
the radians by the square root of the derivative. I got all done and
everybody was looking around when the proctor glanced up to see why
everybody was restless when we had an hour left to go. He looked at
the board and realized he'd put the wrong finishing time apologized
and corrected it. I was in a tough spot because now I still didn't
have enough time to reread and do them right so I settled for an in
depth review. I felt like I had done pretty good for not sleeping all
night watching the stupid Dazed and Confused and eating
Denny's for breakfast and also being cheated out of a reasonable
pacing time on the reading section. I got a 32 out of up possible
36, well above the mean, or the median, or the radians and I am still
not sure what those words mean.
