Well, graduation time is drawing near (don't know if I've mentioned that enough yet). One of the many requirements to graduate at our school is completion of an EWP test, which is just an essay. Every student is given an essay question and 90 minutes to put together a well thought out and well written essay. Ryan and I took our test early saturday morning, with thousands of other students. We walked away with several things to say about the experience and thought we'd share.
1. WHAT A JOKE. It's almost insulting. The point of the essay is to prove that we've learned basic writing skills during our college education. They're not looking for a masterpiece, they want to see that we can put together a coherent sentence. Never mind that we've all passed several English classes and various other upper division classes to get to this point.
2. WHAT A WASTE OF TIME. Seriously, it was too easy. Our question hardly even required thought. "Compare and contrast traditional classroom learning vs. 'distance learning', and which would you prefer". REALLY?!? I was actually a little nervous about this test before arriving, but after reading the question, I laughed. Ryan and I were both done within a half hour, but it took so long to get started, we didn't get out until after 10 because of the charade that took place before the test even started.
When we arrived, the seats were almost full. We were all told to exit the classroom and get in line so we could be admitted one by one. It took one lady to admit us, check our id, mark us off the list, etc. It took another lady to seat us. She put so much thought into the seating chart it was almost comedic. The process took about 30 minutes. And then it took one more guy to 'oversee' and read instructions on how to bubble in our name...we ARE in college, right? Anyway, three separate teachers for each classroom?!?! C'MON!
3. WHAT A RIPOFF. Each student has to pay $20 to take this test. The school supplies a 4 page test booklet, which would cost us MAYBE $1.50 at the bookstore. So what are we paying for? Over staffing, that's what. Even with paying all the teachers, the school is making a KILLING off of these required tests. We think they just created this test as a way to pull in an extra $200,000 (or so) dollars each year.
Anyway, that's what we concluded after taking this test. I wanted to share our opinion about it, and since I don't write for the school newspaper, I have to use my blog to do it. Plus, Ryan told me to. :)
1 comment:
I admit, if I had to chose between writing a simple essay and taking an hour long math test, I would choose the math test. But, that question is WAY too easy for a grad essay. That's more like...junior high? Bummer that you had to pay that much to take that!
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