Here goes nothing... on Cascade Hall

The Wizarding Council's Official Examiners

October 07, 2011 10:23 AM

Ridiculously Anal Testing of Skills by The Wizarding Council's Official Examiners

Two weeks of examinations was bad by almost anyone's standards, but when they came along with the name 'Ridiculously Anal Testing of Skills' they took on a whole new aspect. Examination timetables had been handed out a fortnight beforehand, so no one could legitimately claim to be caught unawares of when their exams were to be held. The hall had been rearranged for the exams and the waterfalls silenced. At the front of the room the examiners sent by the council conferred quietly (except in the case of one wizard) while waiting for the students to arrive and settle into their appointed seats.

Two of the examiners required no introduction. David Weatherby and Bernard Starsky had been at Sonora only the week before, examining the fifth years taking their CATS, and were almost certainly still familiar to the seventh years from when they'd taken their own CATS. Nothing much had changed since the week past. Alongside the two wizards, the final examiner, Aurora Septentrion, looked far more feminine. It helped that she was a witch. A little below average height, her blonde hair fell loose down her back, although with such order that it was almost certain that there was a crafty charm at work keeping it neat and untangled. A pair of elliptical spectacles was perched on her nose, framing her light blue eyes. She didn't smile, at least not in this environment; Septentrion took her work and responsibilities seriously.

The specially designed examination quills were handed out once the students had found their seats, and papers and examination booklets were placed on every desk by the younger two examiners. The third watched all with a suspicious eye, keeping a close eye on the time.

"This," Starsky bellowed at the students without preamble, "is the first of your RATS examinations. We expect you to take them seriously and not to do anything dishonest. That means no cheating. No distracting others taking examinations. And no cheating." He engorgio'd his clockwork stopwatch and charmed it to stick to the front wall. "You will start when the second hand reaches the top, and you have two hours and thirty minutes to complete the paper. Begin."

This was, of course, only the beginning. Written examinations were being held of a morning and after a generous hour and a half break for lunch - and, undoubtedly, practice. And cramming - practicals for the same subject took place in the afternoon, although in a one-on-one format with the examiners. This would continue over the next two weeks while every subject taught at Sonora was covered, in addition to those subjects that students had taken as independent studies. It was long and grueling, but at least once it was done there was the summer - and life as an adult - to look forward to.

OOC: Same as with the CATS, pick your examiner - from those mentioned in the post - for the practicals. Good luck.

Subthreads:

*Quashes author's rat puns* by Daniel Nash

Here goes nothing... by Alison Sinclair

Ewww...RATS by Pippa Brockert

0 The Wizarding Council's Official Examiners Ridiculously Anal Testing of Skills 0 The Wizarding Council's Official Examiners 1 5

Daniel Nash

October 08, 2011 11:33 PM

Quashes author's rat puns by Daniel Nash

Since coming to Sonora and getting sorted into Aladren, Daniel had begun viewing himself as a good student and an academic sort of person. He felt somewhat cheated that this self-delusion had not seen fit to grace him with a tolerance for exams. If anything, he disliked them more than he had before he started at Sonora. Back then, he hadn't felt compelled to attempt a perfect score so there hadn't been the same kind of pressure there was now.

Even if they hadn't been required, he would have worn his school robes, just for the costume value they provided. He always felt smarter just for wearing an Aladren badge, and the Head Boy one didn't hurt either.

Despite the badges, his hands still felt sweaty as he entered the Cascade Hall for two weeks of RATS examinations. Even the CATS did not compare to this, and he had thought those were bad enough. He immediately noticed something was wrong and it took him a moment to realize it was the waterfalls and not the rearranged tables that were the source of his unease. It was downright eerie having this particular room be so quiet. He tried his best to ignore it and took the seat specified as his.

He took a deep breath as his booklet was placed in front of him and he eyes it with dread while the rest of the class received their own. When the lead examiner spoke, Daniel shifted his focus to the clock's second hand with near obsessive focus. Not good, not good, not good. There were only seconds left before he was going to have to actually take this test that had loomed threateningly ahead of him for seven years.

The second hand went vertical and he opened his booklet, not wanting to waste a second of the time given to him. Though he doubted he would ever learn what James Anthony got on his, they were still rivals until they got off the wagons for the last time and Daniel had no intention of not earning an O in every subject he took.

Fortunately, they were starting with one of the easier subjects, Charms. After a while, Daniel fell into a rhythm, and while some of the topics hadn't come up since first year, the one saving grace he had as an Aladren was that his memorization capacity was pretty good, and early on he'd gone for the memorization route instead of the understanding route, so it came back to him with the application of a few key cue words. In truth, he still used memorization for some of the more complex concepts, and he spilled back the textbook's words (paraphrased, of course, so he wouldn't be accused of plagiarism) for one his essays, hoping he'd at least garner partial credit. Aside from that one, though, he thought he made it through the written part reasonably unscathed. And that was the part he was worried about. He felt confident of his practical skills in almost all of his classes, with only a possible exception in DADA, and that doubt mostly arose because he didn't always react rationally when coming face-to-face with dark creatures. But that wasn't today. Today's practicals would be a breeze.

1 Daniel Nash *Quashes author's rat puns* 130 Daniel Nash 0 5

Alison Sinclair

October 13, 2011 3:02 PM

Here goes nothing... by Alison Sinclair

Okay, Alison told herself firmly, staring straight ahead and purposefully keeping her expression as neutral as possible. They’re just trying to mess with your head. You are not going to let them. They would not call something the Ridiculously Anal anything unless they’re trying to either mess with your head or be funny, and either way, they fail. It’s all good.

Glancing around at the other unfortunates gathered to look at the Charms exam, Alison wondered if any casual looks among them were faked, or if anyone really was that okay with all this. If anyone was, she was pretty sure she had found someone who had a lot more of an idea what they wanted to do with their life than she did. That, she was prepared to bet, was way more of why she was feeling distinctly jittery this morning than the name of the stupid test was. Every single test John Fawcett had ever given her had qualified as ridiculously anal and she hadn’t been this jittery before any of them.

To distract herself from that thought, she changed her mind about looking at the examiners. What, exactly, did they do when it wasn’t the end of the year? She was guessing everyone took their exams at about the same time, so there were probably plenty of examiners who weren’t assigned to Sonora giving these tests somewhere else right now, and if there were differences, they weren’t big enough to require the full-time employment of a bunch of people. No one would go to a school where RATS were at the beginning of seventh year instead of the end of it, not when people somewhere else got to take theirs this late. So did they do something else with tests – like write the things – the rest of the year, or did they have other jobs?

Questions, questions. Maybe she’d go into testing, just to have them answered. She could think of worse careers, though that might still leave the rest of the year.

When her test book came around, she opened it and began to write. What she wrote was her name. She took a lot of time with it, too, making her handwriting both flourishy and legible, so everyone would know she was Alison Sinclair and that Alison Sinclair could, for at least two words, write. Later on the exam, they might have squint and hold the paper sideways to figure out what the heck Alison Sinclair had written about one or another topic, but they would know who wrote it. Once she was satisfied with that, she looked at the test questions.

The first one was tough, but she thought she pulled partial credit. The second wasn’t too bad. It was up and down like that for the entire test, and she was pretty sure her second essay had been underdeveloped in a big way, and it lacked a conclusion, but she figured she could especially get away with the conclusion, and it was done. That, she was pretty sure, was the important part.

16 Alison Sinclair Here goes nothing... 140 Alison Sinclair 0 5

Pippa Brockert

October 14, 2011 9:57 PM

Ewww...RATS by Pippa Brockert

Pippa wasn't all that nervous about RATS. She wanted to do well, of course, to please her parents and not shame them or her future husband, but it wasn't as if she needed perfect scores for her future career. Because Pippa would not have one. She would be married to Justin Kendrick soon.

It didn't matter to her. She was more than happy to be getting married, even though there were certain things about it that terrified her. However, those were things Pippa would have to endure. She had to be a good wife and bear her husband children.

And she certainly wanted children herself. A perfect little family. Kids who would be close to each other in a way that Pippa and her sisters were not. Melora was so much older and never came home much and Tawny was, well, Tawny .

Besides, the seventh year was raised to be a good pureblood girl, raised for marriage and kids and social events. Though Pippa was not overly fond of those social events. It wasn't just that she preferred quiet evenings at home,which she did, some of those people were snobby and mean! All they cared about was one upping each other. They gossiped and said catty nasty things behind each other's backs. How would Pippa ever make true friends in such an environment?

Not to mention their obsession with blood purity and social status and wealth. Pippa had all those things, and Justin obviously did too, or her parents never would have betrothed her to him. The thing was, they didn't matter that much to the Teppenpaw. Perhaps because she already had them and people always seemed more concerned about what they didn't have, the way Tawny did.

The seventh year snapped to attention as Mr. Starsky began to speak. Pippa listened to instructions. Of course, she would dream of cheating. The thought had honestly never occurred to her and she wondered why Mr. Starsky had felt the need to tell them twice.

She turned her focus on the first question on her Charms RATS and began.

11 Pippa Brockert Ewww...RATS 132 Pippa Brockert 0 5