Hello, my name is 6308335935

Well, this is an interesting day. For starters, the weather here by the bay is oddly hot-- and by hot, I mean we actually passed the 78 degree record high for this time of year. Yesterday, according to the usually-wrong and oh-so-snooty weatherman, we actually reached 88 degrees!

In other news, though, I got my STAR 9 test results back. What are STAR 9 tests? Well, it's California's standardized test that they give to grades 2-11. It stands for Stanford-9, or Standardized Testing And Reporting.

Being a journalist, these type of things come up frequently in arguments-- why are we assigning numbers to people, comparing them to kids around the nation? If every standardized test is different, then what good does comparing one kid in one huge city (with 18,000 high school students in it ANYWAY) to the kids living in Kansas do? You can see where I'm going with this.

I consider myself an intelligent young woman, and I always have been-- but two things annoy me. The first is putting total faith in one's "intelligence" as labeled by a test. The second is rating someone's ability to perform in a given situation or environment on a number. I may have gotten a 1450 on my SATs, but that doesn't mean I know how to figure out 15% tip on a $63.54 dinner off the top of my head.

I'm sure plenty of people will call me hypocritical for saying this-- but here are my scores, and even though there were some portions where I didn't even TRY (like I've been saying, junior year SUCKED)-- and you'll be able to tell which ones they are, I still did rather well. So here goes:

Total Reading: 99th percentile
Vocab: 99th percentile
Reading Comprehension: 97th percentile (O.O WHAT!?)
Mathematics (get ready to laugh): 20th percentile

-I'm disappointed in myself-- and I know my mom would be too, knowing that 80% of all 11th graders in this country are better than me at math. I can't excuse this, but I can explain it-- the "Integrated 3" questions had nothing to do with the Interactive Math I'd been in-- the class moved rather slowly, and there were high and low periods in which I did/understood the work. They were so confusing (and they didn't let us use a calculator, either) that I wanted to cry-- but I gave up, instead choosing to sleep for the rest of the test.

Language: 99th percentile
Language Mechanics: 99th percentile
Language Expression: 98th percentile
Science: 86th percentile (O.o This is amazing. I thought I left in the middle of the chem test... and my chem teacher, who had been gone for the first three months of the school year, wasn't that great of a teacher. I still passed her class with a C, but THIS IS AMAZING!)
Social Science (History): 99th percentile (WAHAHAHA! And I got a 3 on the AP test! EAT THAT, MR. M! Are you telling me I deserve that F now!?)

I was labeled as "Advanced" (the highest possible target zone for scores) in US History, and English-Language Arts, but Far Below Basic for Integrated Math, and Basic (one off from the State Target of "Proficient") for Chemistry. Go figure.

Students have to take these tests to get out of high school. I've heard colleges look at them. Based on your scores, you can get $1000 Governor's Scholarships-- I got one last year. We also have to take the HSEE (class of 2004 and beyond, which isn't me, but now it applies to 75% of the school) or High School Exit Exam-- the Golden State exam in history, English, math, and science... plus schools encourage you to take the PSAT in 10th grade, or sign up for PPSAT classes. There's just so many tests and so many labels they slap onto students that it's no wonder that there are kids like me who ae intelligent, but lack the motivation necessary to oust themselves out of the 20th percentile.

What state governments and school districts need to do is focus on the student's individual needs-- and if it costs them more money to do so, so be it. It'll be worth it in the long run.