It's critical all right. on Cascade Hall

Headmistress Kijewski

February 23, 2012 7:49 PM

Critical Assessments of Talents and Skills (CATS) by Headmistress Kijewski

Today was the first day of the Critical Assessments of Talents and Skills exams. Also known as the C.A.T.S. examinations. The very exams that had most of the Fifth year class ripping their hair out, taking calming draught potions, and pulling all nighters for the last ten months of their lives. These examinations were extremely important for students as they would determine the course of actions the students would have for their future not only at Sonora, but for the rest of their lives. These exams were just as important as the exams to be taken by Seventh years.

Like every year before, there were four examiners waiting impatiently for the students to be ready to begin the three days of exams. The oldest of the examiners was Bernard Starsky. Some wondered why he was still allowed to be an examiner. He was far more than just ‘hard of hearing’ that it was sure to be an issue later about a mistake between what was said and what he had heard. Still, for the students who had never seen him before and didn’t know of his disability, his stance with his head slightly tilted and his small eyes staring hard at them might have them feeling a bit threatened by the elderly Wizard.

The youngest of the group was Roland Ashburn. Anyone who ended up with him as an examiner was bound to pass the exam. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body and preferred to be liked rather than hated. As a result, people tended to walk all over him. That wasn’t to say students knew they were able to do this, but noticing his quick smile, his awkward stance, and overly cheerful disposition, they were bound to figure him out within the first couple of days.

The scariest looking one out of the four was also the only female, Nanette Langdon. She had a fierce look to her caused by her straight back posture, so tight bun that her face was pulled back, and the pinched up look on her face as though she was constantly smelling something foul. Beyond that, she had such sharp hard features that only matched her hard cold eyes that anyone who was unlucky enough to have her as their examiner might feel as though she was going out of her way to fail them.

Lastly, the examiner that everyone always hoped to get for a proper examination of skills was David Weatherby. Although he was a middle-aged Wizard, David was still a rather good looking man with graying dark hair and vibrant green eyes. There were many females who swooned at him. However, it was his fairness in his examinations that had students wanting him to be their examiner.

The mornings where the theoretical examinations were to take place, students were asked to quickly take their seats while the anti-cheating quills were presented to each of them. Examination books and parchments were faced down on desks and only allowed to be flipped once the examinations have begun. Langdon addressed the students in her crisp voice, “We have cast spells to prevent any cheating. Those who are caught will immediately be failed and removed from the room. Anyone who completes the examination prior to the end of the alluded time will remain seated and quiet out of respect to their peers.” Nanette made sure her seriousness of the situation was made clear as she looked at each student before continuing. “You may begin.”

In the afternoons when the practical examinations happened, students would wait outside of the Cascade Hall until their names were called. Once called, they would enter the Hall and make their way over to where the Examiner was awaiting them. The examiner would ask them to perform certain spells or create a certain potion. Once the student had completed each task, they were free to leave.

OOC: Theoretical (written) exams are in the morning and practical exams are in the afternoons. Mandatory classes are covered the first couple of days while electives are handled on the final day. You are free to write for your examiner and choose the one you would like to work with. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Moments of Day Two by Jane Carey

It's critical all right. by Autumn Collins

Assessing critical skills by Nic Sawyer, Crotalus

CATS-An American Horror Story. by Kirstenna Melcher

0 Headmistress Kijewski Critical Assessments of Talents and Skills (CATS) 0 Headmistress Kijewski 1 5

Jane Carey

February 26, 2012 4:50 PM

Moments of Day Two by Jane Carey

There was, Jane thought, just the one strange thing about CATS, and it was that everyone seemed to think she would need luck to do well on them, that she would be nervous about them. It was one thing for her father, though he knew exactly what she was going to do with her life and just how much relevance her CATS were going to have to it, to send her a note on the first morning, but then Edmond, who should have known her so much better, had hung around after breakfast to offer rather strange-sounding advice and say ‘good luck.’

Really, when she thought about that one too long, she was a little offended, honestly. Just because he’d been a nervous wreck for mostly unrelated reasons during his CATS was no reason to assume she was going to muck anything up during hers, no matter what came out of the trunk if she was required to face a boggart. She had read theories that boggarts had some degree of power over the mind, something that could make it easier to forget that it wasn’t real, but even so…this was a bright, clear, controlled situation. She found it difficult to imagine that anything, really, could happen in the exam scenario which would make her lose her nerve.

She had sort of looked forward to finding out, but no boggart had been in the little room she’d gone into for her Defense Against the Dark Arts exam at the end of the first day, and she wasn’t curious enough about the issue to go seeking one out. Instead, she’d had a quiet first day, rather enjoyed showing off during her Charms exam, and then spent the evening going through her notes for the form of the thing, and now she was finishing her lunch on the second day, more notes lying beside her plate because it was expected but her attention really more on her very good apricot-glazed chicken. Potions and Transfiguration practical exams held no particular terrors for her, especially not after the written portions had been fairly easy. She had paused for a moment on a few of the Transfiguration questions, not sure if she was reading them the right way, but that had been about all the trouble they had to offer.

After lunch, she was one of the first people called and she found herself with a different examiner this time. She’d had Miss Langdon yesterday, and today, it was Mr. Weatherby. She smiled at him just as she had the other, noticing that he was extremely good-looking, for an older man, but with most of her attention on what her brother had told her about him in his summaries of the examiners. This was the fair one, and so while she was, right now, with the exam in front of her, feeling just a little bit nervous – just enough, she thought, to help rather than to hurt – Jane’s sense that this was not really something to worry about, that this whole thing was going to go very well for her, was increased as he showed her to a work area set up for Potions.

There were, as she’d been led to expect, three options on the table, and she looked over the one which was of medium difficulty for a moment before deciding to work on the hard one. She debated with herself, as she began to prepare the ingredients, about whether or not it would be better or worse to attempt conversation with her examiner as she worked, but finally decided to just work, occasionally humming a little to herself and smiling more often than not. Once the potion was done and he’d made all the notes he wanted to about it, time came for Transfiguration.

She did sort of enjoy that one, particularly turning a glass into a groundhog. Turning glass into something animate intrigued her more than using most materials did, because it was more breakable than most things, and so seemed much less likely to break, somehow. Still, at the end of the session, she walked away feeling slightly dissatisfied anyway, even though she had more or less expected all of this. So that was it, then. Finish the electives, and five years were done. It was supposed to be bigger, and she couldn’t help but resent it, just a little, because it wasn’t that way.

0 Jane Carey Moments of Day Two 160 Jane Carey 0 5

Autumn Collins

February 29, 2012 3:08 AM

It's critical all right. by Autumn Collins

Oh, Merlin, this was it. This was the moment she'd been worrying about for the past two and a half years, possibly more than anyone else even and Autumn was more anxious than ever. She was shaking even more violently than she had in Potions, a combination of the fact that she was so very very nervous and so very very cold. She felt like she was going to throw up for sure this time. Even though the last time she'd eaten had been three days ago and that was just a piece of celery. Autumn had had nothing but water. Her time had been better spent studying even through she really had been feeling awful.

Besides, now she was three pounds lighter than she had been the last time she'd eaten. So that was an improvement anyway. Still, the Crotalus wasn't happy though. Not only was not enough, CATS were her focus right now. Or at least she was trying to focus on them. Autumn hadn't truly been able to focus for a long time. Most of the time all she seemed to think about was food and weight loss, even though she spent like all her time studying.

Now that this moment was here, Autumn wasn't even sure she could handle it. She'd made dumb mistakes on her potions exam and hated herself for it. The fifth year was terrified that the same thing was going to happen on her CATS. She'd mix up questions and forget others. Worse, she was shivering so hard that there was no way she'd be able to handle the Potions practical. Then she wouldn't get all Os-and Autumn needed to get all Os. She needed to be perfect.

Yet, there was no part of her that didn't feel horrible. All Autumn wanted to do was go back to her room, put on her warmest pajamas, and get under all her blankets, including the heated ones and just lie there. She felt extremely weak, like maybe she really was sick now, though it was probably just extreme nerves and Autumn had to take her CATS sooner or later.

Still, what if she failed? She didn't just consider failure to be getting less than As in everything. The Crotalus considered getting an E in anything to be so as well. In fact, even if Autumn got all Os, if she got a single question wrong she'd never forgive herself.

She tried to focus on the instructions that Ms. Langdon was giving. The woman seemed strict and every bit as cold as the Crotalus was feeling now. Autumn really hoped that she didn't have her for practicals. She was certain she couldn't handle that.

She felt like she was near her breaking point, about to lose it right here and now in front of her whole class. That would be a humiliation that Autumn would never get over. She'd never liked being the center of attention, especially not in a bad way. She didn't want people to see her being anything less than perfect. The Crotalus just hoped that everyone was too focused on themselves right now to notice how badly she was shivering.

The exam booklets were handed out and Autumn opened hers up up. Her trembling hand picked up her quill and prepared to write. She looked over the first question but the words seemed to swim on the page. The fifth year felt exceedingly dizzy. The room seemed to be spinning. No, this cannot be happening right now, the Crotalus thought. This was usually how she felt right before she passed out but Autumn was feeling weaker and more faint by the second.

Then everything went black as she lost consciousness and went crashing to the floor.

11 Autumn Collins It's critical all right. 164 Autumn Collins 0 5

Nic Sawyer, Crotalus

March 08, 2012 9:58 PM

Assessing critical skills by Nic Sawyer, Crotalus

Nic hadn't been dreading the CATS as much as some of his classmates, but even he had spent some time in the library over the last few weeks, reviewing the material from the past five years. Studying was not cool, but doing poorly on the exams that would affect his entire future was far worse. Granted, he didn't know what he wanted to do with his future yet, but he was sure doing less than his best on the CATS was not the way to go about getting wherever he was going.

On the day of the exam, he took his seat with more nerves clanging than he would have liked. He was smart, smarter than he liked to let on because smart wasn't cool, but today he wasn't going to hold back. If he only got an 80% on today's test it was because he really was only a B student. He liked to think he could do better than that if he tried.

Over the next three days, he'd find out for sure.

They were instructed to begin so Nic did. He hadn't gotten very far when Autumn fell out of her chair in a dead faint. He looked around to see if he was supposed to be doing something but the proctors seemed to have it under control so he went back to his exam, sparing Autumn a few glances until she was moved (presumably) to the Hospital Wing.

He didn't know Autumn very well - he didn't really know very many people very well; mostly he just stalked Rachel and sometimes talked to Eliza - but she was a Housemate and he was somewhat concerned. He wasn't sure he gave the test as much attention as he would have if Autumn hadn't passed out, but he didn't have too much trouble completing it in the time provided. He couldn't say he did perfectly, but he answered all of the questions and had some form of logic to back up most of the guesses he made.

So that was one written part down. The practicals didn't worry him much. He was fairly talented with a wand and he'd grown up making potions. Transfiguration was his worst subject (aside from Care of Magical Creatures which he planned to drop at the first opportunity) and if he only got an A there, it wouldn't be the end of the world. He had no plans to become a Transfigurationist in the near or distant future.

First though, there was lunch, and maybe someone would be talking about if Autumn was all right.

1 Nic Sawyer, Crotalus Assessing critical skills 165 Nic Sawyer, Crotalus 0 5

Kirstenna Melcher

March 26, 2012 5:02 PM

CATS-An American Horror Story. by Kirstenna Melcher

Kirstenna sat with her classmates in the Hall awaiting the beginning of CATS. She wasn't all that nervous about how she was going to perform on the test. The Teppenpaw was pretty decent with a wand and planned to drop Potions anyway. Though she wasn't so sure what to take instead. Kirstenna didn't think she wanted to take every other class offered but she needed Charms and Transfig in part to keep an eye on the professors-and DADA was a definite necessity. Plus she loved Divination even if she didn't have the Sight.

There was nothing in particular Kirstenna would need for a career. She was probably going to work in the circus like generations before her. Or maybe she would become a singer on Broadway or something. It didn't really matter that the Teppenpaw was basically horrible at essay writing and potions. (It didn't help that there was just something about Professor Fawcett's voice that was strangely hypnotic and made her feel like she was in some sort of trance where she didn't really hear the words he was saying. All the professors here seemed to have odd extra powers or weird obsessions or were just plain evil.)

She took note of the instructors. The name of the female instructor in particular caught Kirstenna's attention. Langdon? Like Tate and Constance on American Horror Story? She had to be a relative! How completely fitting that the scary looking CATS examiner would be related to the Langdon family and a witch.

Kirstenna wasn't really up on her magical families and thus didn't know if Langdon was a pureblood name. If it was then-well, not Constance, as her maiden name had to be something else and she became a Langdon when she married Hugo-but Hugo had to be a Squib. Or this woman was a muggleborn, but either way she had to be Hugo's-he died in 1983 and his oldest child, Addie, had been like eleven and obviously not magical or she'd have gotten her letter, Down's Syndrome or not, so Hugo was probably in his late twenties or early thirties-sister or cousin or something.

The testing booklets were barely handed out when Autumn fainted . Looking over her distant cousin, Kirstenna noted that the girl was bone thin. Merlin, what had the Imposter done to her? It had to be the Imposter because if it were the Beetle Lady, the Crotalus would be a beetle, duh. Nor had Autumn spent enough time in the Stenchmaster's Foul Chamber of Putrid Odors for her to waste away like that.

Besides, the Imposter was the worst villain since the Daleks. Had to be her. Autumn was in her house too. Yes, she must have put some sort of curse on the other fifth year to make her so skinny. Maybe the Imposter was putting poison in Autumn's food and she had some terrible illness that would make her get thinner and thinner until she just disappeared.

Or maybe-oh, Mr. Ashburn was taking Autumn away now. Maybe it was time for Kirstenna to focus and just take the test.

11 Kirstenna Melcher CATS-An American Horror Story. 161 Kirstenna Melcher 0 5