I remember hating these standardized tests because they seemed like a huge waste of time, not because I didn’t do well on them. For instance in nearly every subject, I scored in the 99th percentile and in 5th grade scoring in the 99th percentile of high school students in science, social studies and reading comprehension. (And maybe other subjects; those are just the three I liked so I remember them.)

So, yeah, I never gave a shit about them either way, didn’t prepare for them and barely bothered to read most questions. I knew even then that my future was not in a college classroom.

Looking back, it wouldn’t have mattered a whit if I’d just filled them in randomly, but back then I took more pride in my intellectual prowess* than I should have and knew I could blow those tests out of the water with no effort. Which I did.

But standardized tests tell you very little about someone, really. I’d make a terrible college student, which is what many of them propose to predict, as I learn about what I want to when I wish to learn about it. Putting me in a college classroom, especially at age 18, wouldn’t have really changed that.

I just can’t believe we are going to base a society and so many people’s place in it on some test that many of the luminaries of science and technology from ages past would’ve failed utterly, or neglected to show up for altogether.

*I report my results not to brag about them, but to show that I am not inveighing against these tests because I did poorly on them – no, I destroyed them like the fist of an angry god.